On Board Games Season One Episode 003

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OBG Roundtable

Donald, Scott, and Erik discuss board game reviews and ratings.

• Why Board Games with Scott is not a review
• Knucklebones Review policy
• BGG forum thread on ratings http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1386022#1386022

Reviews should take the audience into account

• Families playing games vs. Board Game Geeks
• Children's game ratings kidgameratings.com
• Designers

What elements could have impact on the review?

• How do free games impact bias
• Pre game expectations, possibly due to financial outlay
• Graphics and components
• Adherence to theme
• Play group/play experience

Some things to consider when writing reviews:

• Value for money
• Replayability
• Game vs. game experience
• Consistency
• Avoiding outlandish or untrue statements
• Recognize your bias and try to control for it.

Review Resources

• BoardGameGeek
• RPG.net
• Game Report
• Game Blogs
• Personal Web Sites

• Knucklebones
• Games Magazine
• Games Quarterly Publication of the Games Quarterly Magazine has ceased. See the BGG discussion

Games mentioned in the round table:

• Fluxx
• Rum & Pirates (See a rules explanation on BGWS #37)
• Lost Cities (See a rules explanation on BGWS #7)
• Maul of America
• Tide of Iron (Previously reviewed on OBG 1.1)

Stoplight Reviews

• Rat-a-Tat Cat
• What's it to Ya?
• Democrazy

Sideboard

Scott and Donald discuss what we call games and why it matters.

• Traditional American Board Games
• Ameritrash
• Eurogames
• American Style Board Games
• Designer Board Games
• Modern Board Games

Thanks

To Erik, Scott, and Connie for their contributions and assistance.

OBG season 1 Episode 2: Expanding Game Play

On this episode of On Board Games

• Donald, Scott, and Erik discuss the benefits and purposes of expansions on the board game round table.
• In Red, Yellow, Green, Scott reviews War On Terror.
• In the Industry sideboard Erik and Donald discuss creating prototypes and pitching games to publishers.

Round Table

• Erik has a review copy of Formidable Foes to review for Knuckle Bones. (He and Scott like to be the dumbest player!)

Scott Played

• Bridge
• Enemy Chocolatier and tried to grab nuts.
• Quest for the Dragon Lords (Like Risk meets Talisman)

Donald Played

• Enemy Chocolatier
• Quest for the Dragon Lords

Erik had previously reviewed Dragon Lords for Undefeated. Dragon Lords has expansions.

The guys discuss expansions:

• Settlers of Catan, 5-6 players, Seafairers.
• 3 different experiences with Cosmic Encounters
• All night Double Talisman. Talisman, Timescape, Dungeon, City, Adventure,
• Heroscape dolls Castle, Ice,
• Squad Leader, ASL, Yanks, Beyond Valor, 30 plano boxes
• Carcassonne, the Big Box of Carcassone, selling empty boxes, Princess & Dragon,

Separating Expansions after integration for play

• Citadels Dark City
• Puerto Rico

Games with new play area expansions

• Robo Rally
• Formula Dé
• Power Grid
• Age of Steam

Expansions for every game

• Start Player
• Shocking Roulette

Expansions that were originally designed as part of the game

• Lord of the Rings
• Settlers, Entdecker and Lowenhertz

Why do companies do expansions?

• New units to sell
• Boost sales of existing game
• Cost effective to make

Why design new games?

• Expansions don't necessarily make better game even though they can fix broken game
• Can make games longer, more fiddley
• Change nature of game so it does not appeal to original fans

Games fixed by expansions

• Game of Thrones
• Twilight Imperium
• Starfarers of Catan

All expansions

• Stratego Legends

Collectible card games

• CCG expansions both fix and break the game.

Erik wants his own "Erik Wins" card, so Scott creates a new expansion product.

Red, Yellow, Green

• The War On Terror by Terrorbull Games Game review by Scott Nicholson
• Munchkin?

Industry Sideboard

Prototypes and pitching games to game companies (Erik & Donald)

• What to do, when do do it, and how prepaired do you need to be?
• Ex:Camelot Legends
• Pitching games to Companies like Days of Wonder or Cheapass Games

Once again I'd like to thank Scott Nicholson and Erik Dewey for joining me in this episode. Check onboardgames.net for links to the feed and show notes.