Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 192 - What We Talk About When We Talk About the Five Types of Rules

In this podcast, we've talked a lot about games, mechanisms, and the rules that call these things forth from the page and bring the game to life on our table.  We haven't, however, talked a lot about rules themselves, in the what even really are rules, man, kind of way. This is an oversight that we try to correct in this what we talk about episode on the topic. This episode was built around the five types of rules discussed in The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Play by Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola. You can buy this book here (not a sponsor).

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Main Topic - 5:25

Games Mentioned at Least Briefly

Lots of sports, video games, Castles of Tuscany, Magic: the Gathering, and more.

Preplanners

We are planning to cover Castle Combo and Mexica on upcoming deep dive episodes!

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 191 - Quintessential Jake Games

What is a game that is quintessential to a person's taste? With Jake as the guinea pig, we try to answer that question and determine what defines Jake's taste in this week's episode.

Timestamps

Intro and Updates - 0:00
Main Topic - 6:57
The Contenders - 42:23

Games Mentioned at Least Briefly

In The Year of the Dragon, Chess, Kingdomino, Walking in Burano, Tournament at Avalon, San Francisco, Challengers, Tikal, A Feast for Odin, Great Western Trail, Bonfire, BattleCON, Castles of Burgundy, Dracula vs Van Helsing, El Grande, Bruges, The Resistance, Zoo Vadis, Imperial 2030, I'm the Boss, Cascadia, Planet Unknown, Broom Service, Carpe Diem, Findorff, Riftforce, Voyages of Marco Polo, Sea Salt & Paper, Monikers, So Clover, and more.

Preplanners

We are planning to cover Castle Combo and Mexica on upcoming deep dive episodes!

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 190 - Burgle Bros

In this week's episode, we deep dive Burgle Bros, Tim Fower's self-published 2015 game that casts players as the cast of a heist movie! The theme rocks, but do the decisions and maze-game style play succeed? We'll talk about it.

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Ratings - 3:06
Game Background - 8:17  
Rules Overview - 13:43
Burgle Bros Deep Dive - 15:46

Preplanners

We are planning to cover Castle Combo and Mexica on upcoming deep dive episodes!

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 189 - Play at Work

In this unique episode, Jake makes the case to Brendan for play at work based on the slides from an upcoming presentation. Business casual dress will be strictly enforced for all Interdecisional Spaceship travellers listening in.

Happy Halloween

If you are looking for some Halloween content you can check out our Spooktacular from last year - https://decisionspace.podbean.com/e/pumpkin-spice-board-games-the-decision-space-spooktacular-can-games-be-scary-and-scary-game-recommendations/

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Play at Work - 5:12

Preplanners

Brendan and I have been playing Burgle Bros and Mexica lately, so these are likely deep-dive candidates.

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 188 - Top 10 Games of the '90s

In this episode 3 copilots take on a tall task - rank the top 10 best euro-style board games of the '90s. We try out a wacky new format, it is kind of confusing, but don't worry because Brendan catches on eventually. 

This episode may be best enjoyed in video format which you can see only on Patreon (free trials are available)!

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
What we were ACTUALLY playing in the 90's - 1:45
90's Trends - 6:36
Number 20 through 11 - 13:45
TOP 10 - 18:29
NUMBER 10 (Bohnanza/Schotten Totten) - 20:10
NUMBER 9 (Schotten Totten/Lost Cities) - 23:30
NUMBER 8 (Through the Desert/High Society) - 25:40
NUMBER 7 (Tigris & Euphrates/6Nimmt) - 30:25
NUMBER 6 (Lost Cities x2) - 34:14
NUMBER 5 (Modern Art/High Society) - 37:00 
NUMBER 4 (Tigris & Euphrates/High Society) - 43:00
NUMBER 3 (RA x2) - 44:09
NUMBER 2 and 1 (Tigris & Euphrates/El Grande) - 49:34
Complete List and Reflections - 55:01

Preplanners

Brendan and I have been playing Burgle Bros and Mexica lately, so these are likely deep-dive candidates.

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 187 - EGO

On this historic day, the Decision Space co-pilots have finally been talked into accepting a review copy of EGO from Bitewing games. While we couldn't play as many times as we normally do for a game deep dive, we did our darndest to give this game the full Decision Space treatment. Thank you to Bitewing Games for the review copy.

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Ratings and Reviews - 5:10
Game Background - 11:30
Rules Overview - 18:22
EGO Deep Dive - 21:30

Preplanners

Brendan and I have been playing Burgle Bros and Mexica lately, so these are likely deep-dive candidates.

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 186 - What We Talk About When We Talk About the Sweet Spot Mechanic

In this game we talk about the sweet spot mechanic, which is kind of but not quite a jackpot mechanic and an efficiency puzzle! We try to define this term and discuss the games that fit, a conversation that takes us beyond the bounds of the cardboard playing surface.

This topic came to us from Geoff Englestein's GameTek blog in the below-mentioned article. You can and should subscribe to the GameTek blog there!

GameTek Blog Link:

The Goldilocks Zone

Building in a sweet spot

Preplanners

We have a top-secret game preview, our first ever, coming soon! Any guesses what it is?

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 185 - Five Tribes

We return to a classic deep dive, covering Bruno Cathala's Five Tribes, a 2014 hit by Days of Wonder that remains on the BGG top 100. Five Tribes features unique, mancala style worker "displacement" mechanic, so you know we can't wait to sink our teeth in. Enjoy this episode, Decisionaughts!

Timestamps

Ratings and Reviews - 0:00
Game Background - 5:13
Rules Overview - 9:11
Five Tribes Deep Dive - 19:45

Preplanners

We have a top-secret game preview, our first ever, coming soon! Any guesses what it is?

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 184 - What We Think About When We Think About Playtesting with Paul Salomon 

In this episode Jake and Paul reflect on Stonemaier Design Day 2024, recording just one day after the event. Using that frame, we give 5ish tips to think about when playtesting your game or someone else's. 

Pre-Planners

We'll be covering Five Tribes soon! Also, low-key, Jake wants to cover the Pokemon TCG Game Boy game.

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 183 - Oops, We Played the Hotness (Stamp Swap, Wilmot's Warehouse and other Recent Plays)

In this interlude episode, Jake and Brendan quickly discuss some games that have hit our tables lately and never previously discussed on the pod. Oops, we played some hot games. (Shut up.)

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Stamp Swap - 3:37
Courtesans - 13:09
Harmonies - 19:45
Wonderland's War - 28:09
Wilmot's Warehouse - 37:35

Pre-Planners

We'll be covering Five Tribes soon! Also, low-key, Jake wants to cover the Pokemon TCG Game Boy game.

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games.

Join our active and welcoming Discord community,

Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or

Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast!

Episode 182 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Playing on Hard Mode

This week, we discuss Dr. Richard Garfield's (Magic: The Gathering, Bunny Kingdom) blog post about playing games on hard mode. Consider reading it here on Board Game Geek before you listen to the episode. In this episode, we discuss the blog post, the merits, and the demerits of hard mode in the board game space. 

Timestamps

Intro - 0:00
Playing on Hard Mode - 2:59

Pre-Planners

We'll be covering Five Tribes soon!

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/. 

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA

Rules Overview Music: 
Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI

Contact

We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!