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In this episode, we spend a weekend in a cabin in the woods and play a whole lot of board games! A few friends and I recently spent a weekend playing board games at a cabin we rented in Cedars of Lebanon State Park. We played the board games that don’t fit into normal game nights! Most ran about three hours long, some longer. These are the crunchy, brain-burning games that some of us love to play, and in this episode of the podcast, I report out on the games we played, all of which were fantastic.

Music:

"Open Road" by Purple Planet. "Old Tom Bombadil, A Hobbit Folk Song" by Heimburger Music.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

Usually when I review and recommend a board game here on the podcast, I’ve played that game at least ten times. That way I know the game well and I know it has some staying power. That means I usually review older games, but I like to play new games, too. So here’s a FIRST PLAY review of a new game that I think you might like!

Today we’ll take a look at Club Spooky, a 2-to-4-player game designed and illustrated by Connor Wake and published by Always Awake Games.

Episode Links:

Pre-order Club Spooky from Always Awake Games.

Music:

"Open Road" and "Spooked" by Purple Planet

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we put the spotlight on the preschooler with twelve games that are fun to play with a three-year-old! 

I’ve been on a quest to find board games that the three-year-old can play and enjoy and that don’t drive the rest of us crazy. On this episode, I’m going to share an update about that quest and point listeners to a few games that we’ve found work well for our family of five—including the three-year-old.

Episode Resources

Buy Hoot Owl Hoot on Amazon.

Buy Go Go Little Penguin on Amazon.

Buy Cascadia Junior on Amazon.

Buy Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters on Amazon.

Episode 57 - Kariba

Episode 32 - Outfoxed

Episode 24 - Incan Gold

Episode 20 - Sleeping Queens

Episode 5 - Deep Sea Adventure

Episode 4 - Sushi Go!

Episode 3 - Love Letter

<Politics>

For context on my statement in the episode about Dane Chapin, the CEO of Op Games, see this thread on Bluesky and also this press release.

</Politics>

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we complete our quest to find out which fictional character is the ultimate fighter in our 2025 Unmatched tournament! 

To run the tournament, I identified our 16 most-played Unmatched heroes, then set up some brackets to pit them against each other. A few episodes ago, I reported on the first half of the tournament: the first-round games that whittled our list of heroes to the Elite 8. Today, I’m excited to share the second half of the tournament!

As a reminder, the hero who wins each battle isn’t necessarily the hero who moves on in the tournament. The teenager and I play a game with each pair of heroes, then discuss the game and the heroes and decide which of the two heroes we like playing the most. That’s the hero that moves on to the next round.

Achilles, Little Red, Houdini, Invisible Man, Beowulf, Jekyll & Hyde, Shakespeare, and T-Rex! Who will be the champion?

Episode Resources:

Buy Unmatched sets on Amazon.

Listen to our 2023 review of Unmatched.

Listen to Part 1 of our 2025 Unmatched tournament.

Music:

"Open Road," Purple Planet Music

"Field of Heroes," Tabletop Audio

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we travel back to ancient Egypt, build some pyramids, and compete to be the pharaoh’s favorite architect in Imhotep. 

Imhotep was said to be the architect of the step pyramid in Djoser, rising 200 feet tall, the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. Imhotep is also a 2016 game for two to four players designed by Phil Walker-Harding and published by KOSMOS, in which players step into the sandals of the original Imhotep to build pyramids and obelisks and other great monuments. 

Episode Links:

See if you can find a secondhand copy of Imhotep on the BGG GeekMarket.

Read designer Phil Walker-Harding's introduction to Imhotep.

Music:

"Open Road" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we make some movies while accusing our friends and coworkers of being communists in Hollywood 1947.

Hollywood 1947 is the latest entry in the Dark Cities line from Façade Games publisher and designer Travis Hancock and artist Sarah Keele. It takes the Red Scare’s Hollywood blacklist and turns it into a lively and thematic game that’s hit our gaming table many times. 

The game is a particular favorite of our twelve-year-old, which might surprise you unless you know she’s planning to be a lawyer when she grows up! We will hear from her in the episode for her thoughts on the game. 

Episode Links:

Buy Hollywood 1947 on Amazon.

Listen to my interview with Travis Hancock about Bristol 1350.

Music:

"Open Road," "Summer in Paradise" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

It just was over two years ago when we covered the game system called Unmatched here on the podcast. In Unmatched by Restoration Games, two players battle, each with a different hero that has their own unique deck of 30 cards for attack and defense.

When we covered Unmatched here on the podcast in 2023, we only had six heroes in our collection for our battles. But now, two years later, we have a lot more than six Unmatched heroes! I think we’re up to 25 characters, drawn from eight different sets. 

I thought it was time for us to cover the game on the podcast again, and I wanted to have some fun doing so. Today’s episode is the first of two detailing our 2025 Unmatched tournament! The teenager and I set out to determine which of our 25 Unmatched heroes was our absolute favorite. That meant, naturally, making some brackets and playing a lot of games of Unmatched! 

In this episode, we’ll go through all eight first-round matches, and in a future episode, we’ll whittle those eight winners down to our overall Unmatched champ. 

Episode Resources:

Buy Unmatched sets on Amazon.

Listen to our 2023 review of Unmatched.

Music:

"Open Road," Purple Planet Music

"Field of Heroes," Tabletop Audio

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we work together to find out just how hard it is land an airplane in Sky Team. 

Sky Team is a 2023 game designed by Luc Rémond with art by Eric Hibbeler and Adrien Rives published by Montreal-based Scorpion Masqué. Sky Team is a two-player game in which players work together to land a passenger airplane. 

Emily and I had the chance to try it at Tennessee Game Days last year, and one play was enough to ensure Sky Team would be found under our Christmas tree! It’s been in regular rotation for me and Emily this year, second only to our all-time favorite Wingspan. 

In this episode, Emily and I chat about Sky Team. We start off with a little color commentary, then talk about why we keep coming back to this game—and why Emily will never get her pilot’s license! 

Episode Links:

Buy Sky Team on Amazon.

Music:

"Open Road" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we grab our binoculars and our field guides to go birdwatching in Wingspan. 

Wingspan is a 2019 game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games. Most days, if you ask me what my favorite board game is, I'll tell you it's Wingspan. It's my most played game, and it's the one that Emily and I are most likely to pull out and enjoy after the kids go to bed.

We first covered the game on the podcast back in 2020. That was five years ago! In this episode, Emily and I chat about what's changed in the world of Wingspan in the last five years (expansions! fan art! bird meeples!) and how our interest in birdwatching has grown in that time. 

Episode Links:

Wingspan Fan Art Pack from Stonemaier Games

Wingspan component upgrades from Meeple Source

My photos from the High Island, TX, trip

Wingspan expansions from Stonemaier Games

Music:

"Open Road," "Sunbeam" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, we plant a prize-winning vegetable garden while dodging tedious neighbors in Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden. 

Mr. Cabbagehead's Garden is a solo game designed by Todd Sanders first released in 2016 as a print-and-play and later published by LudiCreations. The game is inspired by the whimsical illustrations of anthropomorphic vegetables found in Victoria-era seed catalogs. Your job as Mr. Cabbagehead is to plant an award-winning vegetable garden while avoiding your tedious and tiresome neighbors who want to sabotage your garden. 

If you're looking for a quirky and puzzly solo game that plays in about 15 minutes, Mr. Cabbagehead's Garden is for you.

Episode Links:

·       Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden print and play

·       GeekMarket for secondhand copies of Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden 

·       The Maiden in the Forest print and play

·       The Draugr at the BoardGameGeek store

·       The Draugr on the Apple App Store

Music:

"Open Road" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.

Text us your thoughts about this episode.

In this episode, I play capture the flag with seven of my friends in Challengers! 

Challengers! is 2022 game for 2 to 8 players designed by Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck and published by Z-Man Games with art by Jeff Harvey. It’s a little hard to describe. If I said it’s a deck-building, auto-battler built around a capture-the-flag tournament structure, would that make sense? Maybe not. You'll have to listen to this episode to get the full description.

If you're looking for a high energy game that blends strategy and luck and plays equally well at 4 players or at 8 players, Challengers! is the game for you. 

Episode Links:

Buy Challengers! on Amazon.

Buy Challengers! Beach Cup on Amazon.

Music:

"Open Road" and "Rise of the Superhero" by Purple Planet.

Podcast Links:

Order a First Player Token coffee mug.

Visit the First Player Token website.

Join the FPT Facebook group.

Follow @firstplayertoken on Bluesky.

Join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord.