We missed recording last week because we were too busy… going to our favorite small convention. So this week, we’ll talk about small conventions!

0:00:00 Fact for 431

It’s a big year for Greek myth. 431 BC marked the beginning of the (second) Peloponnesian War, the end of the Golden Age of Greece, when Athens lost its dominance to Sparta (and less than a century later was conquered by Macedon).

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0:03:45 What We’ve Been Playing

Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons *
Jekyll & Hyde vs. Scotland Yard
Gygès *
Seikatsu (our review – out of print but should be coming back soon)
Skulls of Sedlec
Stroop
Peak to Peak *
Llama Llama *
Whoa There Cowboy *
Bus & Stop *
Taverns of Tiefenthal * (after first seeing it at PAX 2019!)
Looot *
Unmatched Adventures: TMNT (review coming soon)
Phase * (Kickstarter opens early October)
Champions of Midgard *
Machi Koro
The Phantom of the Opera *

(*) First mention on The Family Gamers Podcast

0:29:00 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome new members! We’re so happy to see so many new names.

0:30:25 #Backtalk

We asked you about your “Icarus” game. (A game you were convinced your family was going to play all the time – and time has shown that it’s a game you’re actually never going to play.)

Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

You can enter the VNTYPL8S giveaway. Read the review and check it out!

0:36:15 Small Cons

We’ve talked about conventions plenty of times on the podcast – we go to PAX Unplugged every year, and try to make it to a few other big conventions when we can (Origins, GenCon, Essen, PAX East).

But this past week, we went to a very small convention: CuseCon, which has only a few hundred attendees.

Small conventions are perfect for simply playing games, and won’t overwhelm you with choices. It’s also a much easier environment to meet up with friends, or to make new boardgaming friends!

Andrew compares a small convention to a “staycation” – you’ve committed to being somewhere and playing games, rather than hoping you get around to it when you have free time.

• A small convention is less expensive than a big one.
• It’s easier to do less, or do things in the same area that aren’t the convention.
• It’s less intimidating, and may be calmer.
• It’s easier to play prototype games with designers.
• The people who run the convention are THERE and accessible. It’s easy to volunteer or have input!
• It may be easier to bring a child (or to get a babysitter and go for just a few hours). You can keep an eye on a gamer child without needing to keep them “on a leash”.
• You may be able to stay in the same hotel where the convention is – much easier for family logistics!

Both large and small conventions have their place, but a small convention is much easier to dip your toe in the water.

0:54:00 New Backtalk Question

If you know you’ve got a whole day where you can’t go outside, which game do you grab first and why? Do you get a small appetizer game to set you all up for something big, or do you get the big chonkin’ game to the table first? Do you play 1-2 big games or a bunch of small ones?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 431 – Small Conventions appeared first on The Family Gamers.

0:00:00 Fact for 430

Chlorophyll A absorbs light strongly in the blue-violet region (around 430 nm) and the red region (around 680 nm).

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0:04:30 What We’ve Been Playing

Fight 5
Ham Helsing
Three Sisters
Carnuta
Sails Up!

August Monthly Report

Anitra: 31 plays of 23 unique games. H-index: 2 (Obelus, Hummingbirds, Got Five!)

Andrew: 28 plays of 18 unique games. H-index: 2 (Obelus, Sails Up!, Hummingbirds, Got Five!, Spaceteam)

0:23:00 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome new members! We’re so happy to see so many new names.

0:24:20 #Backtalk

We asked you about your thoughts around preserving “disposable” games.

Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:34:45 Top Games of 2017

We review our top-rated reviews of 2017 and our most-played games of that year. Which ones hold up? Would we still make the same recommendations today?

Our top-rated game reviews in 2017:

Seikatsu (8.5) – about the same. Great game, but it doesn’t get played much.
Downforce (8.5) – Even better than Corey rated it, we think.
Fight for Olympus (8.5) – about the same. Getting played a lot recently!
Purrrlock Holmes (8.5) – a good game, but there are other deduction games that are better.
Knot Dice (9) – Beautiful, and a good system. Would still rate highly, but slightly less.
Tournament of Towers (9) – We would still rate it highly but slightly less. It’s a really hard game!
Barenpark (9) – about the same. Still love it.
Potion Explosion (9) – about the same, especially if you can get the newer version. Our family grew to prefer the iOS version of the game.
Box of Rocks (9) – It’s very good at what it does.
Kingdomino (9.5) – It should have been a perfect score. (Editor’s note: Anitra was wrong – Kingdomino had already won the Spiel des Jahres before we reviewed it.)

0:57:30 Our (Anitra’s) top most played games in 2017:

Do we still have them and play them?

In Vino Morte
Spyfall – we don’t own this game (anymore). Happy to play it though.
Kingdomino
Dairyman
Barenpark
Stroop
Blank – a favorite(?) of our kids
NMBR 9
Seikatsu
Magic Maze – a fun novelty, but not a game we need to have.

1:05:10 New Backtalk Question

There are games in this week’s list that we used to love and thought we’d play forever.

So the question is – Have you ever had a board game Icarus? A game that you were absolutely convinced was going to be an evergreen that you would play as a family all the time, and now, years later, that game hasn’t hit the table in forever!

If you had that kind of game, what is it? What did you love that you don’t anymore?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 430 – Our Top Games of 2017?!? appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Why would you ever want a disposable game? And what are some types of disposable games?

Lots of board games have a stripped down or re-themed version for kids. Are they worth it? Well… sometimes.

0:00:00 Fact for 428

4/28, April 28, is the birthday of  Carl Laemmle Jr. who was the head of production at Universal Studios from 1928 to 1936 and personally greenlit the original Classic Monster films (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy), effectively creating the monster universe. (And there’s a rock with this number carved into it at “Darkmoor”, Universal Epic Universe.)

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0:04:25 What We’ve Been Playing

Ham Helsing *
Splendor Kids *
The Four Doors (review coming soon!)
Boop Shuffle *
Carnuta
Journey to Tir na nOg *
Super Duo * (truly off the shelf of shame)

(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast

0:21:20 July Monthly Report

Andrew: 21 plays of 13 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Palette)

Anitra: 35 plays of 22 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Unmatched, Palette)

Most of our games were played at home, on the weekend, and/or with just 2 players.

0:23:30 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome new members!

0:25:00 #Backtalk

Just a few stories about your “tricky” moments.

Read the responses on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:27:40 Junior or “My First” Games

These are games that start from an “adult” game that already exists and strip them down to something simpler so that younger kids can play it.

It’s obvious why they exist: to bring in kids and introduce them to not just gaming *concepts* but to worlds/themes already well-branded.

When they do it well, “My First” games follow our guidelines for very young children (see our Candy Land article), while keeping games tolerable for older kids & adults.

• Keep physical tasks simple, like rolling a single die. Other simple skills that could be used are matching, stacking, or pulling.
• Use durable equipment (dice, tokens, cardboard tiles rather than cards)
• Keep it short! Turns should take less than 30 seconds, unless all players are engaged on every turn. The whole game should take less than 20 minutes.
• Don’t combine challenging mental tasks into a single “action” (like color matching with counting).
• Keep all players on equal footing. (Lots of luck will help even the playing field.)

This is the same thing that happens in the B-mods we’ve tried! Simplifying decisions and keeping players on equal footing.

But some “Junior” or “My First” games try to stay too close to the original, and the game suffers for it. Keeping more complicated mechanics bumps the minimum age back up (Ticket to Ride: First Journey is 6+, Catan Junior is 6-9), while removing elements that keep the “grown up” game interesting. Not exactly “My First” at that point, although these games can work well for slightly older kids who have never played a strategic game before.

So which “My First” games do it well?

The best “My First” games take board games that are already accessible to older kids and bring them down to a preschool level:

• Splendor Kids (which we just tried) keeps the set collection and engine building but changes the GOAL and progression to something more concrete – now it’s a race up a track!
• Animal Upon Animal Junior (stacking but with much larger sturdier pieces and a simpler game loop. Can combine with the “big kids” version.)
• More “junior” stacking games: Rhino Hero Junior (short shelf life but approachable for a 2 year old) and Suspend Junior (just as much fun for adults as kids!)
• My First Castle Panic – our NUMBER ONE recommendation
  • Similar matching and planning as the big brother, but simplified.
  • Same cooperation!
  • Encourage children to “ask a friend for help” – better language but the same concept as “trading” cards.
  • And what parent doesn’t love a game that cleans itself up as they play?
• Dragomino (My First Kingdomino)
  • A more fun theme – hatching dragons!
  • Adds luck (will your dragon egg hatch?) that gives some balance to scoring
  • Points to probability instead of multiplication

0:53:00 A few more that take a much more complex and “adult” game down to a elementary school level:

• Little Alchemists focuses on only the deduction aspect of Alchemists, and uses a built in advancement/progression to slowly add complexity
• Kids Chronicles based on Chronicles of Crime takes same the basic idea “use the phone/tablet to look around, pick up items” and sets it in a friendly fantasy universe with very basic items and tasks – and a compelling story!

0:55:30 New Backtalk Question

Lots of people ask us how to get our kids into board games. Do you think “My First” games are a good way to do it?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 428 – Junior Games: Are They Worth It? appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Trick taking is an especially hard genre of games to teach. But it doesn’t have to be!

0:00:00 Fact for 427

The world record for a Rube Goldberg machine with the most steps is 427 steps. The record was set in China in 2021, and here’s the video of it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLDfkLBJ0Q

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0:05:30 What We’ve Been Playing

Dream Runners (our review)
Enthrone
Little Alchemists (our review)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game
Endangered Rescue: Galapagos Penguins *
A Place for All My Books (our review)
Dice Words *
Suspend
Quacks of Quedlinburg
Unmatched: Stars and Stripes (with T-Rex!)

(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast

0:32:55 The Family Gamers Community

Shout out to our newest community members! Thanks for joining us.

#Backtalk

We asked about your hidden gem games.

Read the answers on Facebook (two responses) or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:40:30 Grow into Trick Taking Games

What is trick taking? A game mechanism used in many card games. A “trick” is formed by every player in turn playing one card from their hand to the center. Then the “trick” is won by one of the players and set aside. (Usually won by the highest value played in the led suit.)

Most trick taking games require players to “follow suit” and match the suit of the first played card, if they can. Many trick taking games have a “trump” suit that is considered higher than all others.

There are all kinds of variations with partnering, bidding, and how tricks are won.

Room to Grow

Our goal with Room to Grow is to bring your kids – or your family – through a series of games that grow in complexity. Normally, we take a beginner game, an intermediate game, and an advanced game (and some honorable mentions). They offer a plan for growth for players to get comfortable with that mechanic, and all are family-friendly.

Beginner: Hearts

Played with a standard 52-card deck. A “must-follow” game. No trump suit. No bidding (you don’t have to guess how many tricks you’ll win).

Heart cards and the Queen of Spades are bad, you don’t want to win them. But you can attempt to shoot the moon; if you can get all 13 cards AND the Queen of Spades, you take 0 (bad) points and all your opponents take 26 points.

We like Hearts because the rules are simple, the math is pretty easy, and it’s still enough to learn why you want to lose tricks sometimes and win tricks other times.

Bicycle cards has full instructions on how to play Hearts.

Intermediate: Add a little more with Wizard or Rebel Princess

Rebel Princess is very much like Hearts, but with a fun theme (princesses avoiding princes and frogs) and with some special powers. Read Nick’s review of Rebel Princess, and the expansion Happily Never After.

In the other direction, Wizard is a basic trick taking game with bidding. The first round is only one trick, the second round is two tricks, etc. After being dealt your card(s), you decide how many tricks you think you can win in the round. The closer you can get to your bid, the more points you get, and the round acts like a multiplier when you get your bid correct.

Learn more about Wizard on Wikipedia.

Advanced Twists with Two Players or Cooperative Trick-Taking

Jekyll vs Hyde is one of our favorite games, a trick taking game for just two players, with a much smaller deck and potion cards that can activate chaotic powers. One player wants to balance tricks won vs lost, the other player wants to maximize the difference.

Read or watch our review of Jekyll vs. Hyde.

An entirely different twist on the genre is cooperative trick taking games. And the best one to start with is The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine. It provides a series of missions, each with different goals and restrictions. Your communication is limited to a one-time-use token/card each round. Can you work together to get the right trick(s) to the right person?

Read our review of The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine.

Even More Trick Taking

There are lots of variations on trick taking. Some games, like Off With Their Heads! even do away with the “taking” part of trick-taking. Check out our list of trick taking games for more.

0:58:50 New Backtalk Question

What’s your best board game story? Were you playing against someone and able to “trick” them into believing one thing while you did something else?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 427 – Room to Grow: Trick-Taking Games appeared first on The Family Gamers.

We’ve got five literature classics to introduce to your family through board games.

0:00:00 Fact for 426

The number of people living past the age of 80 worldwide is projected to triple, hitting roughly 426 million by the year 2050.

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0:04:30 What We’ve Been Playing

Obelus (our review)
Spirits of the Wild: Awakening
Fire Tower
Palette *
Tag Team

(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast

June Monthly Report

Andrew: 22 plays of 8 unique games. H-index 3 (LotR Trick Taking, Trio, Got Five!)

Anitra: 27 plays of 12 unique games. H-index 3 (same as Andrew)

0:16:45 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome new members!

#Backtalk

We asked you about how you treat board games.

Read the answers on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:22:40 Classic Literature to Introduce via Board Games

We’re going to focus on games that will whet the appetite: You don’t need to already know the stories to enjoy them, but there’s enough to make kids WANT to dig deeper.

1. Winnie the Pooh stories by A.A. Milne: Hundred Acre Wood Fluxx

2. Classic Grimm’s fairy tales: The Grimm Masquerade and 3 Chapters – both of these games make characters from different tales interact, but with specialized relationships unique to each one.

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: tons of games that riff on this character. But the best to introduce the setting and themes from Doyle’s stories include:

• Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
• Baker Street Irregulars (4-book / 4-player mystery from Van Ryder publishing)
• Sherlock 13 (deduction of a criminal, introduces many characters)

4. Shakespeare: be careful in how you approach this! Shakespeare is wonderful, but not great if you’re forced to read it. We recommend Unmatched: Slings & Arrows to introduce some of the fun of Shakespeare.

5. Greek mythology:

• Horrified: Greek Monsters
• Santorini
• Iliad
• (Unmatched has Medusa in BoL1, Achilles & Patroclus in BoL2)

One more shout out for the Unmatched series. They pull from tons of classics: Alice in Wonderland, Beowulf, Robin Hood, Sinbad, and even modern “classics” like Jurassic Park, Marvel characters, The Witcher, Buffy, and TMNT.

(Other games based on classic literature that are great, but work much better if you already love the story: Ichor, Bottle Imp, Paint the Roses, Princess and the Goblin, The Grimm Forest)

0:46:10 New Backtalk Question

What’s your hidden gem?

What’s a lesser-known game that you just click with? Or a game that you think should be much better known because it’s awesome?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 426 – 5 Classic Books to Introduce via Games appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Listener request today! We’re going to talk about ELA skills and board games to support them.

0:00:00 Fact for 425

The most expensive film produced is Avatar (USA, 2009), with an estimated production budget of $425 million. Avatar went on to achieve a worldwide box-office gross of $2.9 billion – the highest of all time.

Sponsor Message

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0:03:30 What We’ve Been Playing

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game *
Stew
Cat Rescue *
Trio (our review)
boop (app version * – we love boop, not sure this is the best way to play it)

(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast

0:14:45 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome to our newest members!

#Backtalk

We asked you about summer board gaming plans.

Read the answers on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:20:50 Patreon Shoutout

Shouting out our Patreons! Check out the tiers at thefamilygamers.com/patreon, and you can see our merch at store.thefamilygamers.com

0:22:00 ELA Learning in Board Games

There’s lots of subjects that we can talk about when talking about learning through board games. There’s the hard sciences, there’s math, and then there’s the more liberal arts side of education, which is important, but a lot more difficult to teach or work through with games.

The best way to practice ELA is through just doing more reading and writing. But you can support foundational skills through work with board games, and also inspire more practice for older kids with “gameschooling”.

We split the “older kid” skills into three groups, with games for each:

Reading

You’re looking for chunks of prose text (not a rule book, not just a few words of flavor text) that will force some practice. This is for fluency, simply encountering more text in more ways.

Tales of the Arabian Nights – roll & move blended with adventure choices (read chunks of story)

Look for sequential text – that has a beginning, middle, and end. But doesn’t have to be long! Games like HerStory or Trekking through History have a few sentences on each card.

Above and Below or other similar games from Red Raven will have you read chunks in the rulebook that are short stories. Choose a path after reading some dialogue and description!

0:32:30 Writing

Writing is a hard skill to build on in games. Penmanship can be improved through simple practice. But the harder skill to build is “how to tell a story” (creative writing).

Tall Tales has players physically WRITE DOWN a scene based on a prompt and restrictions. Then all the story ideas are read out loud. One is chosen to be the “real” story and the next round must build off that.

Untold: Adventures Await is an RPG/storytelling game using Story Cubes. It provides a lot of scaffolding to assist. But you could do much of it with just the StoryCubes and a piece of paper.

Bear in Mind uses storytelling as an aid to memory!

Of course, all role-playing games can encourage improvement in creative story telling.

Dixit is a story-telling game. Normally the storyteller is trying to match with just 1-2 players, not everyone. But you can change the rules around this!

0:39:00 Spelling & Vocabulary

Talk about a tough skill to teach or practice! Most word games are pretty punishing for bad spelling. But there are a few that can be used for practice and improvement. (We did a Room to Grow on this topic a few years ago.)

Bananagrams – especially when using B-mods for younger kids!

Illiterati – which is a cooperative game: everyone can assist each other in making words or sharing letters. And the supervillain theme can give an extra little push for a kid on the fence about a word game.

Scattergories – mostly for vocabulary (but also penmanship!)

Tapple / Tapple 10 – can pull in younger kids even if they’re not competitive. “What are other items in this category?”

0:43:00 Have you used games to help kids practice ELA skills?

What other games would you recommend?

0:45:00 New Backtalk Question

When thinking about games that you play with your family, how do you treat them? What happens if a card gets bent, for example?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 425 – Learning in Board Games: ELA Skills appeared first on The Family Gamers.

Our daughter just graduated from highschool, and that has us thinking about graduation parties and gifts. Would you give board games to a new graduate?

0:00:00 Fact for 424

Dances with Wolves grossed 424 million at the box office in 1991.

Sponsor Message

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0:03:50 What We’ve Been Playing

VNTYPL8S *
Bullseye *
Unmatched: Stars & Stripes
Fight for Olympus (our review from 2017)
Got Five! (brand new review)
Spirits of the Wild: Awakening *

(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast

0:18:00 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome to our newest members!

#Backtalk

We asked about what “super-short” games your family plays.

Read the answers on Facebook or #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:24:00 Support The Family Gamers

Support The Family Gamers on Patreon!
You can pledge “In Our Neighborhood”, “On the List”, “Extended Family”, or “Immediate Family”.
There’s also a free tier, just to stay up to date.
Thanks so much to the two listeners who have already put themselves “on the list”!

Or buy merch from our new store: store.thefamilygamers.com

0:28:45 Giving a Graduation Gift? Games We’d Pick

We have a new highschool graduate, going off to college in a few months. So we thought about what games might be a good choice to give to a new graduate heading off into the world.

Small box, easy-to-learn games:
Cabanga,
Circus Flohcati,
Similo

Solo game:
A Gentle Rain

Party games:
Anomia,
Green Team Wins,
Throw Throw Burrito

Games that play well on video chat (Zoom or Facetime):
Blank Slate,
Wavelength – we love it but requires a little bit of extra work.

… and obviously, a game that fits their special interest. For our daughter, that’s probably Flamecraft. For a friend’s kid headed to flight school, First in Flight.

0:42:20 New Backtalk Question

What’s one board game related thing you’re looking forward to doing this summer? Hopefully with your family? Is it a game you really want to get to the table? A convention you want to go to?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 424 – Games for Grads appeared first on The Family Gamers.

It’s been a minute since we talked about short games! (Episode 194 or Episode 369) But life is crazy these days, we’ll get into the monthly report, so we started thinking about games that were fast. What are some great ones that take 10-15 minutes?

0:00:00 Fact for 423

423 is the easiest symmetrical 3 object siteswap besides the basic pattern in juggling. Go to YouTube and look up “423 juggling” and you’ll see a ton of them.

Sponsor Message

Set up a free call by going to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers today.

0:05:00 What We’ve Been Playing

Animal Rescue Team
Got Five!
Unmatched: Stars and Stripes (John Henry vs George Washington, John Henry vs Wyatt Earp)
Compile: Main 2
Tiny Ninjas (reviewed back in 2019)
Mission to Planet Hexx

0:15:00 May Monthly Report?

Andrew: 9 games played 9 times. H-index: just 1.

Anitra: 12 games played 17 times. H-index: 2 (Unmatched, Compile: Main 2, S’mores Galore Roast & Write, Adventurous)

0:16:45 The Family Gamers Community

Welcome to our newest members!

#Backtalk

Games you won’t let yourself buy? You express mixed feelings on the #backtalk channel of the Discord.

0:23:10 Top 10(ish) Quick Games

What do you play if you’ve got 15 minutes or less?

A few that our family is likely to pull out when we’ve got limited time:

Trio – this list is not in order, but Trio would be our top recommendation.
Similo
Floristry
Got Five! (review coming soon)
Quarto
5er Finden
Drop It
Kiri-ai: The Duel
Get the MacGuffin

What do these games have in common?
Simultaneous turns, or very simple turns (limited decision set).
Strategic, but not complex.
Need to pay attention to the information you get on other players’ turns.
They don’t need to have a timer limiting how fast your turns go. (Exceptions: 5er Finden is a race, and Floristry has a timed auction every round.)

Number 10(ish): three party games (that are more of a social activity):
Person Do Thing
Chit Chat
Smug Owls

Solo games? Anitra is playing fewer short solos these days. But if she wanted a quick one: A Gentle Rain, A Nice Cuppa, Food Chain Island, Grove, or Adventurous all play in under 15 minutes without feeling rushed. Find more at TheFamilyGamers.com/tag/solo

0:49:00 New Backtalk Question

Does your family play any super-short games? What are they?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 423 – Top 10 Quick Games appeared first on The Family Gamers.

We’re testing out a new review format, with our thoughts recorded in real-time after 1, 2, and 3 plays.

0:00:00 Fact for 422

Kuwait Airways Flight 422 hijacking – the hijacking lasted 16 days!

Sponsor Message

If you want to see an estimate of what your fee would be to work with First Move, visit firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers and scroll down, there’s a fee calculator there, as well as a way to set up a quick phone call to see if they’re a good fit.

0:04:00 What We’ve Been Playing

Fleet: The Dice Game
Carnuta
S’mores Galore: Roast and Write (our review)
Adventurous
Tag Team – we begin to unpack WHY we struggle with this game, and talk about whether we’d go for the new Arthurian legends box.
Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders

0:16:20 The Family Gamers Community

Say hello to our three new members!

#Backtalk

We talked about games that are too tempting in the Facebook community and on the #backtalk channel of the Discord.

Andrew found the weird cat game he mentioned: it’s Catlantis.

0:22:20 1,2,3 – Tidal Blades 2!

We give our thoughts on Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders. We really enjoyed this game, but it is a LOT.

(First play conversation was originally from episode 415.)

0:28:10 after the second play

We get a little more comfortable with the largeness of the game.

0:40:30 after the third play

Verdict: We think Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders is overall a better game than Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef.

Are we going to come back to this game and play it more and more? Maybe. We really enjoy this game. It’s immersive, and when we start playing we don’t really want to stop. But we need to allow 3+ hours for a play session. And that’s really hard for us to do. And we don’t have the space to leave it set up. Maybe we can at least play it a few more times over the kids’ summer vacation?

We recommend this to families with a heavy caveat: this is a big game that requires a big commitment.

0:58:40 New Backtalk Question

Last week we talked about the game or game type you can’t help but buy. This week, let’s flip the question.

Is there a game you want, but you won’t let yourself get? Maybe it’s too expensive, maybe you just know it won’t get played in your house. Does this kind of game even exist for you?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community.

Find Us Online:

Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Bluesky: @familygamersaa
Threads: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers

or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord

Or, for the most direct method, email us! [email protected] and [email protected].

PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.

You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)

If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com

You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.

Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.

Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

The post Episode 422 – 1, 2, 3, Tidal Blades 2! appeared first on The Family Gamers.

What should you look for in a board game? Let's look at five elements of games to help you choose.

The post Episode 421 – What to Look for in a Game? appeared first on The Family Gamers.