In this episode I am talking to animator Keith Carter. Keith is a really interesting guy with tons of neat experiences. He is a wealth of knowledge about cartoons. We discuss some of our favorites as well as Keith’s favorite monster movies.

In this episode I am talking to animator Keith Carter. Keith is a really interesting guy with tons of neat experiences. He is a wealth of knowledge about cartoons. We discuss some of our favorites as well as Keith’s favorite monster movies.
In this episode I give a quick review of Richard Garfield’s King of Tokyo. This is a fun game for monster kids, especially kaiju fans.
https://goforthandgame.libsyn.com/the-most-monsterous-games-king-of-tokyo
I’m joined this time by Jacqui Davis, artist extraordinaire well known for board game illustration. Jacqui has been hard at work on a new project – Sul – From Gold to Iron & Rust. This is an illustrated fantasy novel and we are going to get the details straight from Jacqui herself. I hope you enjoy this interview.
Tom: Hi Jacqui. Remind everyone of who you are.
Hi Tom, I’m Jacqui, an illustrator who usually works in board games. Recently I’ve worked on Paint the Roses, Red Rising and the Paleo poster for BGG.
Tom: The story I’ve read is incredibly rich with history and lore. How did all of this happen? Where did Sul come from?
Sul started as a text-based role-play between Katy Grierson and I back in 2007. I started with a character (not appearing in this book), Laphael, and Katy had her demon, (who everyone will get to meet), Aysel. We would take turns posting and telling each other a story.
Our world building happened as a bi-product of this. We’d add new characters, or want to do something different, and have to have discussions about why this or that would go on. Most of those chats are lost now to Sykpe’s logs, but a lot of the answers to those questions ended up in the RP.
The book is a portion of that much longer story re-jigged to make sense for a reader, but built on that foundation, now over a decade old.
Tom: Friends and I did a text-based, email thread story for a year or so a LONG time ago. (I need to locate that.) It was a lot of fun. It’s cool that you both are able to morph that into something that others can enjoy. From what I’ve seen so far, Sul, as a world, is super well realized. The ecology, the terrain, the environs are amazing. The history of the world intrigues me. Tell us about the world of Sul.
I’ll tell you what the Sulaai know.
They know they’ve come from across the barrier sea from a place they call Tito. They spent centuries, (chronicles disagree on the exact number), island hopping before the map-maker Anwo found the bay by following the sun, which they call Sul, and the stars. It was he and his heirs that founded the place on Torro-Anwo and Sulaai in general. Elmes is from the Anwaai house.
For thousands of years the Sulaai have made the bay and the desert north of it their home, but they are explorers at heart and they are always looking to follow Sul to new places. Now, a map-maker named Icnoyo has done just that and found a land to the north of their desert and it is here that our story opens.
Tom: I think that is so cool. The history is so deep. But let’s focus a bit. What is the basic story of the book?
We like to describe it as a spoiled king having a bad time in snow with demons and priests. But, I suppose, we should expand 😉
From Gold to Iron and Rust, is about Elmes, our main protagonist, growing up and coming into his own. He starts the story very sheltered, but when he begins making decisions that lead him and his people to war he finds that choices have consequences, and not all of them are good.
Tom: “a spoiled king having a bad time in snow with demons and priests” That is a great elevator pitch. Introduce us to this king and the rest of the main characters.
I’m happy to!
First, we have Elmes; the young Sulaai king. When the book starts he has been king in name for years, but the country has effectively been ruled by his uncle, Lorro. It’s a situation Elmes has been happy to let continue, since it leaves more time to lounge about and do nothing. Then, the route north is opened up and Elmes finds he has to actually do some kinging.
Next is Cydric. He’s a northern priest to a god called Father. Unlike Elmes, he isn’t one for delegating when he can do something himself. At the start of the story he has found himself setting up home in the Dead City, an ancient civilisation that has long since collapsed.
Then, we have Aysel. She’s a demon, literally. They are creatures of chaos and destruction, and normally live very short lives. Aysel bucks that trend, she’s old and has managed to move past her baser instincts – but that doesn’t mean she isn’t still going to make trouble where she can.
And finally, there’s Margo. She’s a Sulaai noble girl from a lesser house. Her family are at the bottom of the courtly pack thanks to the fact that their estate, Torro-Iago, is located at the far, far north of the country and is so far away from everyone and everything else. Then, the seaway north is opened up and with it her family’s prospects.
Tom: I really like this different take on a king. It reminds me of Moorcock’s Elric. Atypical monarchs. That makes things interesting. How did you settle on this as his personality / central core.
Elmes has evolved a fair bit since his first incarnation. Originally, he was your basic good king in the RP, then in our first draft he became a rather unpleasant guy that we didn’t even enjoy writing. (We were leaning far too far into grimdark there, I think) On the re-write he got a fairer shake.
That being said, he is just a little insufferable at the start. There are a couple of books I thoroughly enjoyed with protagonists I find so annoying; Alfred Duggan’s Conscience of the King, and River God by Wilbur Smith. Cerdic and Taita are definitely characters I love to hate, but that makes them fun. We tried to put a bit of that into Elmes.
Another inspiration was real-life history.
One of my favorite non-fiction books is the Plantagenets by Dan Jones; what struck me was that these kings were just people with foibles who happened to be born into this really overbearing role. Some handled it better than others, some were good, some were terrible, others just ok. Elmes was allowed to be his own person, not a ‘good’ king, or an ‘evil’ one. There is one historical monarch that has inspired his final incarnation the most and that is Akhenaten, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh. The first monotheist who built a sun cult that revolved all around him and his wife, that is just too interesting.
Tom: The art is fantastic. I mentioned the map. I’m a mapper and I love this map. How long did it take you to create?
Well, two answers. Our idea of the world map has been in flux for years. Like most things we only nailed it down when we needed it for story reasons. For example, we know there is another continent across the sea – Tito – but we’ve only just started exploring it in-game. The unknown is partly what makes it fun!
The particular map used in the book is an amalgamation of several I’ve made before to keep a track of things while we play. That took about 10 hours or so of faffing about. In the end I decided to go with a more stylised version to call to a map mentioned in Chapter 1, rather than accurate cartography.
Tom: You are known for your interesting character designs. And of course, the characters look awesome and very interesting. How do you go about designing a character? Where do you start?
I tend to cast actors as characters in my head, sometimes for their voice, or their manor, or looks. Often I mush several together. So, when it comes to painting a character I look for references that capture the feeling I have in my imagination and sketch something from them. I then play and change things until I see the mental image I have of the character looking back at me.
In terms of costumes, for the book I wanted to invoke an ancient greek/mesopatamian look for the Sulaai, and a neolithic/copper age appearance for the northerners. This again, I used a reference for. (I’m a bit of a ref hoarder.)
Tom: The Greek / Mesopotamia look really works. I’m fascinated at how well you fleshed out the people and religions of Sul. Talk a bit about that process.
A lot of how we built things like religions and cultures was asking each other why they would do this, or how can we make this happen, and went from there. And then, just like real history, stories that came before affected the ones that came after, so the depth has happened almost by accident just because we’ve been going so long.
Writing the book was a bit like how I think historical fiction must work, we couldn’t deviate too far from what we’ve established in lore without entirely unraveling the threads. The plan for this and future stories is to tell the history as we’ve established it, just tidying up a bit for an audience.
Saying all this though, I do love a good history audiobook, podcast or documentary while I work, and I tend to hoard that information too. So, if something is particularly interesting and applicable to the RP crops up I will try to fit it in.
Tom: I love history too. A couple of podcasts that I enjoy are Hardcore History and What You Missed In History Class. You should check them out. Did you go so far as to create languages for Sul ala Tolkien?
I will do! If you haven’t, you should try the Fall of Civilisations Podcast and Pre-History – the Archeology of the Ancient Near East.
We haven’t gone all Tolkien on the languages, no. I do find the history of language interesting, but I’m not smart enough to invent one 😉
What did happen was that the Sulaai have evolved their own cadence when talking, and that we’ve kept in and developed. It started by replacing the word ‘not’ with ‘never’, and the idea that they don’t have a word for please; they just make a request and expect a yes or no answer. Once you start typing like a Sulaai it can be hard to stop.
Tom: I love their ‘grammar’. It really adds flavor to the story and makes the characters more real and the world more solid. I know Katy from her board game art. How did you two create Sul? I know Katy is also an artist. Did she contribute art to the book or was she just involved in the story?
Yup! Katry contributed 3 stunning illustrations to the book, and has done concept art for the landscapes in the past. I love her environments, particularly her forests – and luckily we have one giant one for her to paint- , so it’s great to see when she comes out with something new.
She was also involved in writing the first draft of the story (back when it was 3 times as long!) And, of course, all the RP stuff it was based on. She has also been there to make sure Aysel stays in character and to answer any lore questions I’ve forgotten.
Tom: Thank you so much for your time, Jacqui. Sul looks amazing and I can’t wait to read about Elmes and the land of Sulaai and Medaai.
Kickstarter goes live on November first 😉 The pre-launch page is here; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/logicfairy/sul-from-gold-to-iron-and-rust-an-illustrated-fantasy-novel
If people would like to read more on the chartered, lore and Chapter 1 they can visit the website here: https://www.sulbook.com/
You can contact Katy at kovah.co.uk
You can contact Jacqui at jacquidavis.com.
Thanks for joining me and please give the Sul KS a look. It looks like a really cool book.
Until next time, go forth and game.
Up next on Go Forth And Game Podcast – animator Keith Carter talks about cartoons, God, and monsters.
My guest this time is Austin Smokowicz of Dr. Wictz. Austin gives me the run down on their new game, Robotech Reconstruction, coming soon from Strange Machine Games. This is an interesting show as I’m a Robotech novice and Austin was more than happy to get me up to speed on the franchise. The game sounds amazing too.
I’m joined again by game designer Adam Dalton. This time we are talking about his newest game, Power Plants. In the game, players are wizards planting a garden of plants. This is a tile laying / area control game in which the tiles represent the plants that grant the players various powers and actions. Players use their sprites to claim fields and pods for endgame scoring. Adam is a great guest and I’m sure you will enjoy learning about Power Plants. Power Plants is being published by kidstablebg.com.
This show I’m joined by Derik Duley and Benny Sperling. They are the design and publishing team behind Roll & Write Revolution. The Revolution has published four groundbreaking roll and write games. We talk about these and their most recent one, Train In Vain.
In this episode, I talk with Adam Daulton about his new game, Fall of the Mountain King. It is being published by Burnt Island Games and is a prequel to their hit, In The Hall of the Mountain King. Adam is a great guest and we have a great conversation about how the game evolved into what it is, how the unique mechanisms came about, and The Lord of The Rings.
Welcome to episode 111 of Go Forth And Game. I’m very happy to have Derek M. Koch as my guest this time. Derek is the main man behind Monster Kid Radio. MKR is the Rondo-award winning, weekly podcast celebrating the classic, and sometimes not-so-classic, genre cinema of yesteryear! Derek and I are talking about Dice Monster Dice. DMD is game publishing arm of Monster Kid Radio. We discuss Harsch Kingdom, his D&D 5E compatible campaign setting. Dice Monster Dice has two YouTube channels – Untitled Generation X Nerd Show and Dice Monster Dice and both of these are mentioned. Lastly, we talk about DMD’s recent very successful Kickstarter, Monsters From The Public Domain. This is a gaming supplement converting monsters seen in public domain monster movies to be compatible with 5E. This is a REALLY,REALLY fun show. Enjoy!
Untitled Generation X Nerd Show
The Classic 5 on DriveThruCards
Welcome to episode 110. This time around I’m talking to my fellow Game Designers of NC member Josh Mills about his new game, Aldabas – Doors of Cartagena. Josh co-designed this one with friend of the show Nat Levan. Grand Gamers Guild is publishing it. Josh is a fantastic guest and we have a lot of fun on this show. Enjoy.
In my 109th show I’m talking to Connie and Dan Kazmaier about the newest game from Steeped Games – Chai: Tea For 2. The newest member of the Chai family, Tea For 2 is a light euro strategy game, beautifully illustrated in a compact and fast playing package.
Here is the link for the Chai: Tea For 2 Kickstarter.
You can learn more about the Chai family and Steeped Games here.
Here is part 2 of my interview with author Micah S. Harris about his Witches of Winter Trilogy. We continue finding out more about the story, Micah’s influences, The Prisoner of Zenda, Ravenwood – Stepson of Mystery, and The Bible. It’s a super fun talk and I know you will enjoy it.
My long time friend and author, Micah S. Harris is my guest this time. He has just published the second book in his Witches of Winter Trilogy – Portrait of a Winter Court. It’s the continuing story of Freyja and Ambrose, their budding romance and the dangers they face. I enjoyed this book immensely. This is a fun interview as we bounce from topic to topic including this book, the previous one, more of Micah’s writings, Frozen, key word searches, King Kull, Hans Christian Andersen, Hyperborea, dragons, and cat litter Yep, cat litter.
Important Links: Aarastad, Minor Profit Press, Micah S. Harris on Amazon
I’m happy to talk with Ryan and Bob Craig, the guys from One Day West Games. We talked about this game back in 2019 when it was released. Mr. Sanders and I did an in depth review of it at that time. You can find that in the archives. But I wanted to revisit Monster Highway for The Most Monsterous Games. So the Craig Brothers are here to discuss how the game came about, what it is, and its future. I know you will enjoy this show. And Happy Halloween!!
We continue our introduction to gameschooling with suggestions of games you can use for teaching different age groups.
We are back from summer break and raring to get back on at it. In this show we introduce a new segment, Go Forth And Gameschool. Some of you may remember that we have discussed gameschooling before. But we are going to add this segment on a regular basis. So, in this show we introduce gameschooling, what it is and some ideas on how to do it.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/goforthandgame/Go_Forth_And_Gameschool_101.
I have the privalege of talking with Marc Specter this time. Marc is the force behind the Grand Gamers Guild, a small independent game publishing company. You may have heard of a couple of their games – The Artemis Project, Endeavor: Age of Sail, and Endangered. We’re here to talk about their most recent project, Gorinto. And we decided to talk about Endangered a bunch too.
In this episode I have the privalege of talking to Jon Merchant. Jon is a game designer and graphic artist. His first game, Squire For Hire, was a smashing success last year and he and Letiman Games have an standalone expansion for it launching on Kickstarter tomorrow. It’s called Squire For Hire: Mystic Runes and it is a very fun game. Jon and I will talk more about it the show.
Designed by Kevin Russ
Art by Katy Grierson, Katie Khau, Kevin Russ
Published by Weird Giraffee Games
Summary: Tumble Town is a town building, dice stacking game where players draft dice and use them to construct the buildings of their town.
Components: 100 dice in four different colors; 71 cards including building cards, horse cards, main street cards, reference; some tokens; a score pad; funded stretch goals
Gameplay: One their turn a player drafts a building card from an available grid of cards. Based on the row the card is chosen from, the player obtains a number of dice. They roll these dice and place them with the pips unchanged onto their storehouse card. Using the dice in their store house, the player physically builds the building on the chosen building card or one previously chosen. Each building has certain dice criteria to be built. The dice used must match these criteria. Each player goes through these steps on their turn. The game continues until two of the four dice pools are depleted. Scores are calculated from building points, special card features points, building height, and icons. Tumble Town plays in about an hour.
Gameschool-ability: The old west theme of Tumble Town makes it a good game to be used as part of a United States western expansion history study. Pattern recognition is a strong aspect of the game. Dice choice requires planning and forethought. Scoring requires addition of course.
Final Thoughts: We enjoyed Tumble Town. The physical aspect of the game stands out. Rolling dice then stacking them to build the town is a really cool idea. This also makes the game visually interesting. The components are top notch, even in the prototype we played. It requires some planning to score optimally and this requires a good memory. For me the best aspect of Tumble Town is its similarity to Homesteaders. Both games are town building games. Both require resource management. Both are engine builders. Tumble Town has an added aspect of the physicality and is a bit more visually interesting. All this together makes Tumble Town a winner for us.
Tumble Town has funded on Kickstarter and blown through most of the stretch goals. It is on KS for a few more days. Grab a copy while you can.
We want to thank Weird Giraffe Games for providing a review prototype for an honest review.
As always you can leave comments at goforthandgame@gmail.com or @tomgurg or @inquiry_meeple or @gameschooling
Thanks for listening.
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Skulls of Sedlec
Designed by Dustin Dobson
Art by Marty Cobb
Published by Button Shy Games
Summary: Skulls of Sedlec is a card placement game for 2 or 3 players (in the base game) about relocating skulls from a cemetary and arranging them into an ossuary. Each card depicts skulls of two of five different types of people. Each skull / person has a preference of how they wish to be arranged. Proximity to other skulls influences scoring.
Designed by David Sheppard
Art by David Sheppard
Published by Rampage Games
The Kickstarter can be found here.
The Basics:
Galaxy Dice EX is a dice rolling game for 1-4 players that harkens back to the arcade games of the past. With just a few dice and some cards, you defeat stages to eventually fight the boss. It’s a quick, fun push your luck game with very high replayability.
Galaxy Dice EX was the winner of The Game Crafter Arcade Design Challenge.
I like science fiction. A lot. If I’m reading a book, most likely it’s science fiction of some sort. You should check out Leigh Brackett’s Eric John Stark series or anything by Robert Heinlein. I enjoy pretty much all flavors in the genre – space opera, speculative, alternate history, hard science, sci-fi spy (James Bond). It’s all good. Greater than fifty percent of the movies I watch fall into this category. Most recently I was in a ‘70’s science fiction mood so I got The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Logan’s Run watched (man, Charlton Heston liked to take his shirt off!).
So what about games? There are a lot of science fiction based games. You have the standard 4X games like Eclipse, pick up and deliver games like Terra Prime or Junk Orbit , worker placement ones like Alien Frontiers or Dinosaur Island. You can’t fall down in a game store without landing on a space themed game. I searched BGG on this theme and there are 50 pages of science fiction games! Why is this? Why are there SO many science fiction themed games? I have some thoughts on this.
First, and probably most important, it sells. If it didn’t there would not be so many games with these themes. People like science fiction. Science fiction in general is popular. Why? There are many, many reasons. I’m not going into this as it will take 20 posts to cover. Go search the internet using “Why is science fiction popular?” and you will get plenty of good opinion and stats. I’m talking a small crumble of the science fiction pie.
Because it is popular, science fiction sells. Go to Barnes & Noble and go to the science fiction section. It’s huge. Then go to the DVD department there. Again lots of movies and TV shows. Science fiction makes money. Game publishers are in the business of making money from the games they publish. It is logical that they would jump into this genre. I would be interested to see sales numbers for science fiction games. I bet they would be in the top two themes. So there is money to be made with science fiction themed games.
Another reason, I believe, is for the publisher it gives them their own intellectual property (IP). Unless it is a licensed property, the publisher owns the ‘world’ created for the game. They can do whatever they wish with that property. If the initial game makes money, they are free to do sequels or other games in that world/universe. And they could use some of the same art or at least artists and creators that they already have relationships with. It is sustainable. They can continue to build off of the property for years. For example, Button Shy Games has created its Pocket Universe. There are seven or eight games set in this universe. They all have similar art and their stories are loosely linked. Locations, characters, and art are shared between the games to give the Pocket Universe cohesion and a unique identity.
That’s two or three good reasons why there are so many science fiction games. I will mention one more – escape. Ask people why they play games. It is very likely one of the reasons is it gives them a break from life, a little bit of time to think about something other than jobs, bills, etc.. Science fiction adds another layer on top of that. And I think an active layer. By that I mean that people can imagine science fiction themes better than say, medieval themes. Even though the latter theme is more factual I think people enjoy thinking about a science fiction theme. I know I would rather imagine myself zipping around in a spaceship delivering goods to planets rather than driving an ox cart between towns in Europe. Science fiction is snazzier. People like snazzy.
Those are just some of my thoughts on the science fiction genre in gaming. Next time I start my own journey into genre.
Designed by Kamil Cieslo
Art by Dagmara Gaska
Published by Awaken Realms lite & Van Ryder Games
2-6 players
Ages 10+ (Though I believe younger players can easily grasp the game.)
Length of play: 20-30 minutes
Theme & Goal of the Game: In Bees, players are bees collecting pollen to make honey. Players use pollen gems to get honey cards (points). The player with the most points wins.
Gameplay Summary: Bees consists of two types of cards – Gathering cards and Honey cards and four colors of plastic beads. Players start with one or two gems. On a turn players, can either draw two Gather cards or buy a honey card. If they choose to draw, they take two Gather cards then choose one to discard and one to play. Each Gather has two bits of information on them. In the top right corner are colored icons indicating which pollen gems the player takes on the turn. In the bottom left corner are more icons. These indicate which pollen gem(s) the other players take. This is a follow mechanic that keeps all players in the game every turn. If the player chooses, they may, on their turn, buy Honey cards. Honey cards are the points cards of the game. Buying them is how a player scores points. Each Honey card has a purchase price of pollen gems. Players pay this price and collect the Honey card. Honey cards may also have an action on them. Examples are “Take 2 pollen gems of your choice.”, “Discard all your remaining pollen gems.”, “Each other player may take a pollen gem.”. This action is activated when the card is purchased.
Game play continues with players playing Gather cards to collect gems. Then use the gems to buy Honey cards for points until all the Honey cards have been purchased. Honey cards are scored and the player with the most points wins.
Not Quites: The only issue we ran into in Bees is that is the pollen gems are not color challenged friendly. The card icons are but the gems themselves are not. One of our group experiences this and it hindered him at first. We compensated by calling out the colors on the Gather cards when played and making sure that the gems were kept separated and colors remained in their place.
Right Ons: The first thing is the art. You are immediately impacted by it upon opening the box. It is gorgeous, lush and colorful. I’m surprise VRG is not offering prints of the card art. I’m certain that they would sell. Are you listening AJ?
Next is the accessibility, with the above caveat. The game is simple and easy to grasp quickly. The game is fun and plays quickly. We played during lunch in about 35 minutes including explanation. I like the follow mechanic. This keeps everyone involved in the game and can be very profitable and timely. And the game plays up to six people. A big plus. Lastly, the game has an advanced mode in which end game scoring cards are added stating certain conditions for bonus points at the end of the game.
Who should like this game: Anybody. Plain and simple, anybody can play and enjoy this game.
Gameschool-ability: Bees lends itself to be included as a part of an insect unit study / biology lesson. While it doesn’t actually teach much itself, including it will enhance your school experience and add some fun.
Final words:
This game was a hit. My family enjoyed it (even though we played slightly wrong). It was an even bigger hit with my lunch time game group at work. They really liked the game a lot. I agree. This is a fun, quick game easily picked up by anyone. It’s a perfect game for families with its simple rules and pretty art.
I want to thank Van Ryder Games for providing a review copy of Bees for an honest review.
Ryan and I review three games. First I talk about Wayk from Fisher Heaton Games. Then Ryan takes a look at Sierra West from Board & Dice. The last one is Tangl, also from Fisher Heaton Games. The Fisher Heaton Games are on Kickstarter right here –
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fisherheaton/analog-apps-by-fisher-heaton-games
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_10_27_Wayk_Sierra_West_Tangl_final.mp3
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
I have the pleasure of having two guests this time. It’s Helaina Cappel of Kids Table Board Games (KTBG) and designer David Diaz. David is having his first game, Fossilis, published by KTBG! So I wanted to get them together to talk about how the game came about, what it’s about, and why KTBG loved it so much they had to publish it. And that’s what we talk about tonight.
Fossilis KS here.
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
This time Ryan pulls all the weight and reviews THREE games all by himself. First up is The Zorro Dice Game from Pull The Pin Games. Then it’s one of the new ones from Concrete Canoe Games, This IS Rocket Science. Last is The City from Eagle Gryphon.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_09_29_Rocket_Sciene_The_City_Zorro_Dice.mp3
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
Game Designer Jay Cormier joins me this time to talk about his new publishing company, Off The Page Games. The company’s first game, Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage Game. Mind MGMT is based on the awesome comic of the same name by Matt Kindt. Jay talks about starting a game publishing company, the game, and his cool, unique game plan for Off The Page.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_09_22__Jay_Cormier_final.mp3
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
Ryan and I are reviewing Planetoid from Portal Dragon, The River from Days Of Wonder, and Periodic from Genius Games.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/Periodic_Planetoid_The_River_final.mp3
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
It’s chemistry time! No, don’t groan. This is good news. I’m talking to Paul Salomon, the co-designer of Genius Games’ Periodic – The Game of Elements. Paul gives us the low down on the very good game about the periodic table, elements, and what they are used for. Be careful. You might learn a little more about atomic radii, noble gases, or metalloids. A review of Periodic is on the way too. http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_08_24_Paul_Salomon_final.mp3 The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it. You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
In this show Ryan gives us his impressions of Camp Pinetop from designer Steven B. Davies and published by Talon Strike Studios. It’s a good review and the game sounds like a winner. It hits Kickstarter on September 24. Be sure to check it out.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_09_02_Pinetop_final.mp3
The theme for Go Forth And Game is Countdown To Myocardial Infarction by Peter Gresser. Though it is in public domain we thank him for allowing us to use it.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
This time Odin Phong is back to talk about his newest endeavor, Dice & Ink, volume 1. It’s an anthology book of roll and write games being published by his company, Inkwell Games. This cool book is loaded with 10 complete roll and writes ranging from solo games to co-op games. This is a pretty unique idea and Odin is super stoked about it. As you will hear in the show.
The book of games hit Kickstarter today. Go check it out right here.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
It’s review time. First Ryan will give us the lowdown on Chocolatiers from Daily Magic Games. I’ll talk about the beautiful hiking game, Parks from Keymaster Games. Lastly, Ryan will tell us about LOTS, a new game from Royal N. Games. These are fun games and we will give you some details.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_08_12__Ryan_Sanders_chocolatiers_Lots_Parks_final.mp3
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
I’m talking to Dan Letzring of Letiman Games about their latest game, Adventure Tactics. Here’s some info about the game.
Adventure Tactics: Domianne’s Tower is an encounter-based, campaign-driven, cooperative deck-builder. Begin your journey as one of 5 Basic Classes and battle your way through a branching campaign where you choose your own path in an attempt to overthrow the evil Queen Domianne. With each encounter, you will level up and unlock over 15 Elite Classes, adding new actions, equipment, and abilities. Will your team find the right combination of Classes and powers in time to stop Queen Domianne? Let the adventure begin! The game is funded and has unlocked 3 stretch goals as of this posting.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
Seasons of Rice
Designer: Corry Damey
Artist: Jerome Damey & Corry Damey
Publisher: Button Shy Games
Player count: 2
Ages: 8+
Play time: 15 – 30 minutes
Components: 18 double sided cards depicting an ancestor on one side and rice paddy landscape on the other, rules sheet, wallet
Theme: Players are rice farmers trying to build the best rice paddies.
Goal: Place cards connecting paths to make enclosed rice paddies. Enclosed paddies score based on the number of ‘squares’, indicated by thin furrows lines, inside their paddies as well as the number of farmers, houses, and water buffalo enclosed. Additionally, players score either throughout the game or at the end based on their ancestor’s special scoring condition.
Game play: Players draw two random cards from the shuffled deck. They choose one as their ancestor and place the other, field side up, as the first card in their landscape. The remainder of the cards are dealt evenly to each player. Players draft landscape cards in two phases. In the Wet Phase they will exchange card hands and choose 2 cards each turn one to add to their landscape and one added to a central row, which will be used in the second phase. Placement builds enclosed paddies. Enclosed paddies score immediately based of counting the ‘squares’ formed by the thin furrows within enclosed paddies. In the Dry Phase, players take turns drafting a card from the central row. When all the cards are placed into a landscape, end game scoring takes place. Players also score varying and increasing points for each farmer, house, and water buffalo within their enclosed paddies. Water buffaloes not enclosed count as a negative point each. Players with end game scoring ancestor scores accordingly. The player with the highest score wins.
My Thoughts:
Well, I’ll break the suspense. I like Seasons of Rice a lot. It is a spacial puzzling game. As such it has high replayability. The 18 different ancestors add a lot of variety. I enjoy these. I get a very Sprawlopolis feel from Seasons of Rice. Except in a two player, competitive game. It’s a worth cousin. That is a high complement from me. The game is easy to learn and plays very quickly once you know how to play. The game has good table presence. The completed landscapes look great and give you a feeling of accomplishment. Seasons of Rice has some suspense in that you know what cards are available after the first hand off. But you don’t know which will be available to you each turn. What cards will your opponent choose? What cards should you keep for landscape building and which one should you put out to the center? The strategy of the game lies here. And remembering to play to your ancestor’s special scoring is key. I recommend Seasons of Rice.
You should like Seasons of Rice if:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256705/seasons-rice on Boardgamegeek.com
Thank you to Button Shy Games for providing a review copy of the game.
In this show Ryan and I take a look at games that are on the way in the second half of 2019. We talk upcoming Kickstarters, games hitting retail, and then we discuss the games we are most looking forward to seeing in the next few months. Continue reading “The Most Anticipated Games of 2019, Part 2”
Ryan and I have a great time talking about some games from one of our favorite publishers, Kids Table Board Games. Ryan revisits some of their early games then we jump in on the most recently released ones.
First is Haunt The House by Helaina and Josh Cappel.
Next Ryan covers Wreck Raiders.
Lastly Ryan talks about their latest, Bugs on Rugs.
The Kids Table Board Games website.
https://CasualGameRevolution.com/kickstarter
I’m talking to game designer Adam Daulton this time. We discuss his published games, Ninja Camp from Action Phase and K’uh Nah from WizKids. We also talk about what he has in the queue.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
This time Ryan and I are taking a look at, Tussie Mussie – the newest game from our friends at Button Shy Games. Tussie Mussie is the next game from designer Elizabeth Hargrave. It’s really cool game about a flower fad from the Victorian age. The game is currently on Kickstarter for only $13 including shipping. Have a listen then buy the game. Tussie Mussie Kickstarter
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
We have the pleasure of talking with Starving Artists designer Mike Wokasch this time. The second edition is currently on Kickstarter and we talk to Mike about where the game came from, how it developed, and what is different in the new edition. And we discover that Ryan had a big hand in the first edition of the game. Bonus! We talk to game designer Owen Wokasch who designed Button Shy’s Potion Class and just happens to be Mike’s son. And the youngest designer ever on Go Forth And Game. It’s a long show but a very fun one. I hope you enjoy it.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
This time I’m talking to Jonathan Weaver about his experiences at Proto ATL, the playtesting and showcasing event that happened recently in Atlanta.
In this second part of our Before The Con series, Daniel Solis, the designer of such hits as Junk Orbit, Kodama, and Athelion, talks about how he prepares and runs playtest sessions at conventions. There is a ton of valuable information for game designers here. And it’s a lot of fun.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/goforthandgame/2019_04_16__Daniel_Solis_final.mp3
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
This show Ryan and I review three games. First, Ryan talks about Sunny Day from Ludicorn by designer Malu Palau. Next I cover Crystallo by Liberty Kifer and published by Light Heart Games. Then we discuss what we think comprises a gateway game. Lastly Ryan raves about Chai from Steeped Games designed by Dan & Connie Kazmaier. It’s a cool show with some interesting talk about gateway games.
You can find lots more interesting gaming content at The Inquisitive Meeple, our brother site.
Where Monsters Dwell
Adventures In The Cardboard Universe .... with Tomgurg
Adventures In The Cardboard Universe .... with Tomgurg
Adventures In The Cardboard Universe .... with Tomgurg
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