We’ve got a really lovely slice of videos lined up for you this month. Very soon we’ll have a review of Beast for you – a cracking iteration of the hidden movement genre that throws us right back into the kinds of games SU&SD reviewed when it was just a little baby. We’ve also got a video review of War of the Ring: The Card Game, as well as some quick-and-nasty reviews for games we played at expo. We’re slowly gearing back into the rhythm of more regular videos, so expect a whole heap of content over the next few months! (I hope!)

Podcasts-wise? It’s the wild west out there. We’ve played so many games, and next week myself and Matt will be sitting down to record multiple pods telling you all about them. I don’t entirely know what to expect from those, or even how long we’ll record, but we played enough exciting games to keep us chatting for a good long while. They’re making some great stuff out there!

As for streams – I think I might start worming my way through the System Shock remake very soon – but I’m thinking about changing the day we stream on. More on that soon, as it’ll all abide by the classic stream motto – “idk, it’s chill”. For donors to the site, the next newsletter will be a fun recap of UKGE and will arrive a little later than usual – I was thinking about writing it whilst there, but I was simply having too much fun. What a silly job. Thank you for letting me do it!

Obviously, this is a bummer. We know how special and important this event is to a lot of people, partly because WE are those people too. It’s our highlight of the year, and as we’ve said repeatedly at the events themselves, we’re amazed and humbled at what SHUX has become – sprawling out to be something that’s bigger and cooler and kinder than any of us.

If you receive and read our monthly newsletter this likely won’t be a surprise: ambitious projects and post-lockdown exhaustion means that 2023 is a rebuilding year for the SU&SD team – after a decade of creating neat stuff at top speed, we’ve needed a little time to get back to the core focus of making lovely and interesting videos about games.

Covid was obviously disastrous for conventions, scuttling plans and erasing entire businesses: thankfully we were able to carry some of the deposits and ticket sales from 2020 forward to SHUX 2022 – but we simply didn’t have the cash in the coffers to sort the down-payments for another show this year.

Again, we’ve been hugely lucky throughout the difficulties the industry has faced in the past few years – but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t hit pretty hard by the covid lockdowns: while “board games” as a concept saw a boom for those with families or folks who lived with like-minded individuals, hobbyist were – in most cases – playing fewer games together, or frustrated by the imperfect digital alternatives.

Add that to times being tougher across the board for everyone, and it’s very understandable that our donations have dwindled – it’s just unfortunate that this coincided with a point of “low batteries” – having just spent a handful of years trying to swivel and pivot our way through a difficult period.

Thankfully though – literally just because of our donors – we’ve been able to hold this ship together, plugging any of the holes with laminated cardboard and mouth-mashed chunks of tiny wooden cubes. And while we’re really sad not to be able to share the joy of SHUX with some of you this year, we’re still emotionally buoyed by the vibes of last year’s convention – honestly, it might have been the best one yet?

A powerful reminder of what life can be like when everything aligns: great people connecting around the squidgy core of this extraordinary hobby – a beacon of laughter and passion and fun after such a long stretch of glum isolation. Our team lost loved ones to the pandemic, as I’m sure is also true for many of you – but as much as the past few years may have changed us, one thing remains the same: life is at its best when we’re surrounded by the folks we love, at a table, staring quizzically at far-too-many cardboard components.

And since we won’t have a chance to see you in Vancouver, we’re doing our DARNDEST to get to more conventions this year. Here’s what we have in the works, we hope to see you there!

UK Games Expo [confirmed!]: Birmingham, England: Jun. 2-4, 2023 – Matt, Tom, and friend-of-the-show Pip will be doing some stupid things live on a stage, and signing your stuff, at some point?  This is the big UK show we try to do every year, and we’re thrilled to be returning. Sadly we won’t be doing “live podcasts” this year because warhammer has probably spend mad $$$$ to turn the room we usually use into laser quest, or something? Honestly we’re not even mad, that’s a glow-up.

Ropecon [confirmed!]: Helsinki, Finland: Jul. 28-30, 2023 – We have been invited to be this year’s guests of honour at Ropecon! Quinns, Tom and Matt will be doing some talks, and likely playing lots of roleplaying games. What else will we being doing there? We don’t know! And legally, WE DON’T HAVE TO TELL YOU. Come and see for yourself, with your eyes!(???).

SPIEL [unconfirmed]: Essen, Germany: Oct. 5-8, 2023 – It doesn’t look like SPIEL really does stage events – or necessarily has any dramatic interest in us BEING there –  but we’re trying to airdrop special-correspondent Tom right into the beating heart of SPIEL.

PAX Unplugged [confirmed!]: Philadelphia, PA: Dec. 2-4, 2023 – We’ve headlined this great show a few times in the past, and we’ll be back again to do COOL STUFF. More details closer to the time!

Obviously – none of the above are SHUX – and we’re really going to miss it – and you! – this year. But here’s to hoping that for October 2024 we can spring back bigger and better than ever. Thank you as always, from the whole team!

First up, let’s talk about videos. We’ve got a bumper Frosthaven video from Matt very soon – undoubtedly an exhaustive guide to our feelings on one of 2022’s biggest games that, if you’re anything like me, will be an accompaniment to your next few ‘Waiting For My Pasta To Boil’ sessions. I’ve started writing a script for Guards Of Atlantis 2, a game I’ve played a bunch of recently and developed all kinds of complicated thoughts about. Look forward to that in a few weeks, I should hope! Outside of that, Quinns and I are stewing on whether or not to take a leap into the world of Nine Men’s Morris for a video that’s being formed ‘Title-First’, but also thinking about a format for a few classic Reiner Knizia games we’ve been playing recently. Lots to think about!

On the podcast front, you can expect the “Gerding’s Game Gulag” Special mentioned on the last podcast, alongside some chats about what we’ve been playing recently. I’ve given Findorff a couple shakes after reading its frankly ridiculous blurb. We also played some Mobile Markets, Amun-Re, and Mogul just the other day – all of which will no doubt get a slice of coverage – and I’m still gradually trying to pull groups together for a Brass Birmingham Revisited podcast, and, gulps, John Company. 

Nothing much changing on the streams front, continuing to pursue a schedule of ‘Whatever We Fancy’. This week we’ll return to King Of The Castle after some balancing changes have made it so I’m less likely to continually ‘Get My Ass Beat’, which should be fun!

Coming soon, we’ve got a few great video reviews. I’m just about to embark on playtesting a chunky box with a robust community around it to see if a video springs forth – but I’ll be coy about exactly what game that is, just to keep things exciting. Myself and Quinns are working on a ‘Top 10 Small Games Video’ that’ll hopefully be done this month – a rapidfire assessment of a bunch of little boxes we’ve been digging into that’ll hopefully capture some of the energy of the 10 Oink Games video we made all the way back in 2019. We’ve got some other ideas simmering too – one incredibly large box in particular finally getting a full script from Matt – but I will not over-promise!

Podcasts! We’ve got some great games to cover on that front too! If the right boxes arrive on my doorstep at the right time, a ‘Retrospective Special’ on a few old favourites in shiny new jackets might appear somewhere on the podfeed – and we’ve also got a plump stack of new games to natter about too. I’ve not quite sorted out the schedule for such delights – a week of holiday was followed by a week of video… which was then followed by a week of ILL! Rubbish.

Stream-wise, things should be really fun. I’m going to play some Slay The Spire: Downfall on Tuesday – a wildly impressive fanmade mod to one of my favourite deckbuilders! We’ll also probably squeeze some more King Of The Castle in at some point, alongside any suggestions thrown out by the general Twitch public. I’m not sure what to do on my birthday – as it does fall on a stream day! Do I go out and enjoy a nice meal with my partner, or do I use the occasion to force Quinns to play Fortnite in front of you folks? We’ll see.

What have you been up to, everybody?

Very, very, very soon you can expect a video from Quinns on the fabulous indie RPG ‘Alice Is Missing’! If you’re a fan of ‘SU&SD Videos Persuading You To Buy Something’ then boy howdy, it’s a good day to be you. Following that, I’ve got a review in the works covering a smattering of Word Games I’ve been dabbling in recently – and only one of them is a board game! That’s right, we’re getting WEIRD with it!

We’ll see what else March holds, though. I’ve got a little holiday booked, Matt is making his new house have such luxuries as this thing called ‘Electricity’, and Quinns is getting on with what sounds like a very interesting video over on PMG. So we could be in for another slightly slower month whilst we find our feet in 2023. Some hurdles have been cleared already – I’ve moved into my new flat, and had the first good night’s sleep in about a year and a half! Such joy! But there’s still a few things to sort before we can get the schedule back on track. Thanks so much for your patience with this more comfortable schedule whilst we get everything in order.

Podcasts-wise, we hit a small hitch where one member of the team deleted an entire podcast by accident, so we’re one pod down! I won’t reveal the human responsible, but their name starts with a T and ends in an M. But fear not – we’ll work to keep the games flowing! This month, we’ve got what should be a really interesting podcast where myself and Quinns chat about our time playing Mahjong for review, and the reasons that Quinns didn’t want to proceed turning that script into a full on video. There’s potential for a podcast about John Company 2e, if I can find 3 more fools who might want to take on that journey, and I’m thinking about the potential for a Brass: Birmingham retrospective episode now that the game has ascended into the top spot on the BGG top 100. I’m also about to start gathering people into my nice new living room to work through the stacked in-tray that I’ve accrued, which should fill in the gaps.

That’s March! What have you been up to, everybody?

Let’s talk about videos! Our next review will be for the hot new Splotter game – Horseless Carriage! You can look forward to that, hopefully, next week. Where does it sit in the Splotter Canon? You’re going to have to wait to find out, but I should hope it’ll be an interesting video. The next video after that will be the first from Quinns this year – on yet another classic family-weight game involving pleasing, clacky components! What might it be? I’m going to leave this one as a teaser, just for fun!

Audio-wise, we’ve got some treats! This week’s pod will be the fabled CCG Double-Feature, where myself and Quinns go head to head in a… well, hopefully quite a nice chat about two interesting new CCGs! After that, you can expect a smattering of ‘what have we been playing’ podcasts, as well as some full-fat-thoughts on Paperback Adventures! I’m hoping, too, that we might even have something special ready for the end of the month, but I’ll tease no more than that.

Lastly, what about streams? Yesterday we played some Against The Storm, a fascinating little Roguelike City Builder! That, and the previous stream, will be available as VODs over on the Twitch. Next week’s stream will most likely be a Destiny 2 dungeon or two with a couple friends of the show, schedules permitting, and the week after that we’ll be playing some of the digital implementation of Paperback Adventures.

That’s the month! Some great stuff coming down the pipe for you all to look forward to – hopefully not too messed around by me moving into a new flat! Wish us luck, we’re hoping to get the paperwork signed so I can continue on living life as normally as a professional board game reviewer can.

Thanks everyone! What have you been up to, recently?

So, why the change? Mostly this comes from me sitting down to write the weekly posts and realising that the format was increasingly becoming either ‘we are posting a video and a podcast’ or ‘we are not posting a video but there will be a podcast’ for most weeks in 2022. This wasn’t terrible, of course – but it was a weird little job that didn’t feel all that useful! Now we want these posts to be more substantial, and to give folks who are interested more of a peek behind the curtain as to what we’re getting up to, as well as affording us a little more flexibility in how we approach things. Video reviews can get changed, pushed back, shuffled around and entirely canned for all manner of reasons, and we want to reflect that reality in our scheduling updates.

However! We still want to be updating the community and sharing the ins and outs of being living human beings working on things – so, to that end, we’re going to loosely start the Twitch Channel up again for some much needed chill and chat time. We’ll probably keep these very casual to begin with, and be guided by you lot on what you want to see next! The first of these will likely be next week where I’ll be playing a splash of the new Firaxis game: Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and I’ll be open for questions and rambling about SU&SD in 2023! We’ll post a date for that over on the SU&SD Twitter account once I’ve got things in order.

So! With that change out the way, what’s going on in January?

First up, you can expect a really lovely raft of podcasts. We just released our 2023 predictions episode last week, and we’ll follow that up this week with a chat about the first few games we played this year – The Wolves, The Search for Lost Species, and Ginkgopolis! After that, we’ve got a few more episodes lined up in the hopper – a CCG Special talking about Flesh & Blood and Solforge: Fusion, as well as a lengthy chat about Stationfall and some of the games we’d played after PAXU. Good times!

Over in videoville, a couple things are in the cooker. We’ll soon have a video on classic family game Rummikub, in which I have a complete critical breakdown. Why am I making it? I don’t really know. On top of that, myself and Quinns are sketching out the borders of a ‘Top 10 Small Games’ feature, but that might end up being a February project – such is the way when we’re trying to feature a whole bunch of games at once. There’s a few other scripts that are in the ‘maybe’ pile for turning into full-fat videofilms – but I think our January and February will likely be a little quieter on the video side of things whilst Matt continues to assemble the video studio for new features, and I navigate the absolute state that is Brighton’s rental market.

Thanks all! See you next week for a stream, and next month for another this month on Shut Up & Sit Down! 

[oh, and I know this is a little late for ‘This January in Shut Up & Sit Down! We’ll hopefully have these updates much earlier – so we sandwich the month with a ‘This Month On…’ and a Newsletter!]

We’ve got two absolutely fabulous weeks of content for you on the site this week to lead into the holidays with two incredibly HOT releases! Both sturdy Shut Up & Sit Down Recommends… what could they be? One is big, and the other is big! Both are games, and they feature boards! Both have cards, and one has dice! Knowing you lot, you will almost certainly guess ’em from those clues alone. Darn.

Podcast-wise, we’ve got Matt and Ava on this episode chatting about Libertalia and Oltree – two games that… well I can’t remember exactly what the thematic cohesion is there, but I’m sure they’ll have worked something out!

That’s all for this week – I’m busy sprinting the last bits of content out before nipping over to PAX Unplugged in… two days?! Oh my. What have you been up to, everybody?

Little else to report this week! We’re cooking up two reviews of games we’re really excited about this November, and I’m eager to get right back to writing one of them! What have you been up to, everybody?

No video on Thursday this week – I’m taking another week to get this one ready for human eyes! It’s going to be on two games, it’s going to be quite silly, and it will only contain moderate amounts of gore.

On Friday, you can expect a podcast! Ava and I will be talking about a few of the games we’ve been playing recently, in a non-canon podcast episode before our 200th Episode Special! What can you look forward to in that podventure? I’m not entirely sure yet – leave suggestions down below!

What have you been up to, everybody?

This Thursday, we should have that bumper four-pack review ready and waiting – a whole cluster of games that are perhaps as exciting as they are expensive. Keep ‘em peeled over on the YouTube channel for that one – I think it’s shaping up to be a ‘big giggler’ (my words, unfortunately).

On Friday, Quinns and I are tackling a perfectly-plotted arc of a podcast – charting a course from clear cards (3000 Scoundrels) through asymmetric pirates (Ahoy) to finally land at a perfect merger of those very same ideas! That game is Dead Reckoning, and we reckon it’s dead weird.

That’s this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

After an absolutely fabulous, surprisingly smooth SHUX 2022, the team are all back home, a little bit rested, and ready to get some HOT GAMES onto the internet as soon as possible. Let’s get cracking.

Next week we’ll have a fresh video for you – a bumper quadruple-review special of games that share a common theme! Myself and Quinns will be tackling that one, though he has the thankless task of actually wrangling the scripting and editing process. Me? I’m just there. In the video. To give bad opinions about cardboard.

On Friday, we’ll be bringing the podcast out from its month-long-slumber (sorry!) with an episode all about the previews we made for SHUX! This one is live, it’s loose, it’s full of mistakes and allusions to an unobservable powerpoint. What a joy! We’ll have another live podcast following that, and then we’ll be back to some sort of schedule – ready to share thoughts on games like Twilight Insription, Splendor Duel, Great Western Trail: Argentina, Galileo Project… the list goes on!

I’m also thinking of streaming some videogames at some point soon for a SHUX debrief and to ramble about all the plans for the site as we slide into the end of 2022. I might play something cerebral and interesting, or I might just absolutely plaster some screebs in Destiny 2, because they deserve it.

That’s all for this week! Thank you so much for your patience with a relative lack of ‘typical internet products’ coming down the pipe recently – we’ve got some incredibly exciting games to tell you all about very soon.

What have you been up to, everybody?

If you couldn’t make it to SHUX this weekend, we sure will miss you! But have no fear, we have some tasty extra little AwSHUX content just for you!

We’ve brought together a roundup of OVER FORTY GAMES that are brand new or coming out very shortly that we’ve covered in our new-and-improved SHUX Previews format – so while you can’t demo them with us in person, we hope these videos are the next best thing as Matt, Ava and Tom sit across from you at your game table to tell you just how incredible this hobby continues to be!

Have you had your fill of Hot New Board Games? Why not play some games with friends – new and old! We have once again partnered with Tabletopia, who will give you a free 14 days of ultra premium subscription to try everything and anything that they’ve got digitally loaded up (including a couple loaded in just for AwSHUX). Go here and use the code: SHUX14

Want to setup some games or just chat with some other lovely SU&SDy people? You’ll find them on the Discord!

And of course, it wouldn’t be SHUX without podcasts – we’ll be capturing them live at the show and posting them just as soon as we humanly can so you too can hear what Team SU&SD is so excited about in Vancouver Town!

Have a great weekend everybody, and we’ll be back October 10th with our regularly scheduled programming – some really fun reviews slated for the next couple months.

This state is, unfortunately, not that conducive to making ‘hot new content’ – so we’ve not got a video going up this week and have taken the opportunity, as a team, to have a bit of a rest on the content-schedule before SHUX. Of course, just like ol’ Worm Month, that doesn’t mean we’ve taken our feet off the gas – far from it! We’re working on some stuff that’ll be fresh out the oven when we’re back; and, of course, we’re putting together ‘the actual show’, where Matt has concocted some fab ideas for live stuff if you are making your way over to Vancouver in… TWO WEEKS?! Oh blimey.

However! That doesn’t mean we’ve got nothing for you, now! Podcasts will still be sliding out as per usual (sorry for skipping last week – technical difficulties!) – but more excitingly, we’re going to start rolling out our preview videos just a little early. 

Over the next couple of weeks you can look forward to a series of videos going over a whole bunch of new releases from a huge array of publishers. I am just really excited for everyone to see these! Not only do we have some really rather exciting games available to have a peek at, but we’ve also got multiple team members in one room! Together! Doing previews! What a concept.

That’s all for this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

This Wednesday, expect a video from Quinns about how to get into tabletop roleplaying games! Also, apologies for the perennially sluggish ‘Tom Brewster’ – a worthless grub of a man with no respect for himself. He’ll even sink so low as to call himself a ‘Worthless Grub’ using his own narrative voice! At least get Ava to do it!

Ava: Tom, you’re a worthless grub.

Tom: Hey, that’s me too!

Phew. Glad we got that one sorted. Also this week, you can expect a podcast from myself and Matt all about a few of the games we played recently – including a first impressions of Guards of Atlantis II *two-eyes-doing-the-sideways-look-emoji*

That’s all for this week! Hope you’re all peachy – I went for a big walk in a big valley!! What have you been up to, everybody?

This Wednesday, expect a video from Matt about a game packed with tracks, brimming with digits, and overflowing with decisions! Wowee! Isn’t that just so exciting – and entirely different to a ‘regular card game’ that you might play with your hands and brain!

Hope that addresses the balance neatly. This week there will surely be a video about that card game folks, don’t you miss it.

Podcast-wise? It’s all a bit of a mystery! Myself and Matt have been so deep in the SHUX-Preview videomines that we’ve neglected to play any games – with two members of the team completely gameless, we’ll have to speedily scrounge something up! Maybe myself and Quinns will talk about Arkham and Paris: La Cite de la Lumiere as promised last episode? Who, indeed, is to say.

That’s all for this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

Wednesday, Thursday, OR Friday will contain within itself a video review that I am scripting now. It will probably be quite short and quite silly! I can give away that it’s a card game, and it also has tokens – never has a more exciting combination been concocted.

Friday is, as always, pod-day. Myself and Quinns will be rambling about Obsession and it’s expansions – a cult-favourite Victorian Living Room Simulator. We have some thoughts about it, and recorded the episode in a most unconventional way. I think It’ll be rather fun.

That’s all for this week! If you’re getting a bit sick of ‘just me’ at the moment, sorry! We’re in the midst of SHUX preparation, so the whole team is busy burying themselves in ‘all that’ – please be kind if the content-train slows down as we approach Vancouver! I know you will be, you’re all lovely. If you want more info about SHUX, we just clarified our covid policy and tickets are still available! Come check it out if you… like board games I guess? Nerd.

What have you been up to, everybody?

We also have SHUX previews coming next month for a bunch that we’re super excited to get hands on with, including Starship Captains, Turing Machine, Septima, Evergreen, Gutenberg, and Fit to Print!

If you missed it, make sure to also go give Ava some love on her awesome video last week on this year’s Kennerspiel winner, Living Forest!

See you next week!

We’ve got a video! Maybe. Technical difficulties (as per usual) have meant that it may or may not make its way to you this Wednesday or Thursday! Stay tuned for that one, or just let it slide over when it fancies.

One thing that is a certainty is the podcast – where myself, Ava, and Quinns will be chatting about three games! We’re talkin’ trains in The Transcontinental, revisiting the Court of Miracles after it drowned its way out of the last podcast, and I will be letting loose some choice words about Draftosaurus.

That’s this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

For Wednesday’s video, I’m taking another swing at what may become an annual tradition; a tier list of every expansion for a game! I’m putting the finishing touches on ‘The Freaky Little Morsel’ tier, so you can be assured that all opinions will be entirely rigorous.

At the end of the week, you can feast your ears on a podcast all about Van Ryder Games’ latest schlock-em’-up; Final Girl! There’s a time honoured tradition within the company of Quinns getting very hyped about a solo game, and then dumping all of it onto me just so that he can have someone to talk to about it. The result of that process; on Friday.

That’s this week! Hope everyone is doing fine and dandy! What have you been up to, everybody?

We had some technical difficulties at the back end of last week that have pushed that review into this week! Expect to see it on Wednesday or Thursday whilst we polish it up for delivery.

Friday is, as always, ‘the pod-day’. Ava and I are talking about a bouquet of games we’ve been playing recently – FlickFleet, King of 12, Museum: Suspects and Caper: Europe! You can hear us begin to get loopy in the heat on that one.

That’s all for this week! I’m chugging a big glass of ice water and setting up Shinkansen: Zero-Kei (is it any good? I’m about to find out!) What have you been up to, everybody?

But enough about me, what about us? What are we making for you, hot off the backs of our summer donation drive? This week brings two spicy gems.

Thursday bears a review of a modern classic – a game that hasn’t yet been given the review treatment but is near and dear to plenty of people; one that Matt is a new fan of and I’m a touch more sceptical about. How exciting!

Then, on Friday, we’ve got the delayed Undaunted: Stalingrad podcast. I promise we’ll talk about it this week after pushing it back a touch – it’s an enticing box.

That’s this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

This week is a nice simple one! Sometime in the Wednesday/Thursday reviewzone, we’ve got not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven games up for review. The theme? That strings them all together? Well, it’s a bit boring. I’ll let you discover it yourself to avoid disappointment.

Friday’s podcast is going to be all about Undaunted: Stalingrad – a first-impressions from myself and Matt talking about this souped-up version of one of the team’s favourite games. This thing is quite something.

That’s it! Eight games are being covered this week, and, I’ll go ahead and say it, all of them are gr-EIGHT! Tee hee. What a time to be alive and playing board games!

What have you been up to, everybody?

On Thursday, the tree bears fruits! Videofruits! Best not rush them, leave them to roll off the vine and straight into your waiting arms. Me and Matt just filmed this badboy, so expect something packed with hasty energy. Wonky, silly, and a very good game.

Friday? It’s the day you know and love, absolutely packed to the gills with pod. We’re going to be chatting about a smattering of games played at the UK Games Expo that we didn’t cover live! That includes Villagers, adorning this Mondaypost like a crown of cardboard. Lovely.

No stream this week, unless someone goes fully impulsive. I’ve ended up being ‘right busy’ recently, but hopefully we’ll be back soon with some more nonsense! If you didn’t catch it, Ava’s cupboard-organising stream is still available as a VOD right here!

That’s this week! Hope you’re all well in there, ‘internet people’! Whatcha been up to?

On either Wednesday or Thursday, I’ve got a video review! This one is a little spicy, and I’m having lots of fun editing it – expect a fairly chunky box that works less well than you want it to (welcome to Kickstarter!).

Then, on Friday, we’re podcasting! I’m not entirely sure what stack of games will make it to pod-town, but know that it’ll likely be packed with games, stuffed with surprises! Perhaps some chat about Rush M.D? A chuckle over some Wormholes? Or maybe some first impressions of Undaunted: Stalingrad?

What have you been chatting about, chuckling over, or… impressing… this week, everyone?

Ava: Tom! Wake Up!!!

Tom: AHGh! Ava! Why are you here? Did I accidentally resurrect the multi-person-back-and-forth for a convenient framing device, only for you to vanish entirely not three lines later?

Ava:

Tom: Alright. No need to be rude.

Readers, everyone at SU&SD HQ is taking a beat to recover from a fantastic weekend at UKGE. Fantastic but exhausting! Hence we’ve got a bunch of quite wobbly plans this week.

There will certainly be no video this week, and maybe not next either. Speaking personally, that NISEI project was so huge and consuming that I’ve little in the pocket to show you all and I need to reframe myself to not think of everything in clicks and credits.

HOWEVER! As a video substitute, Ava and I are thinking about getting up to some slightly chunkier streaming antics. We’ve no idea what form that’ll take, but we’re hoping to continue being back in the swing of that very soon.

Podcasts though? They abound. We’ve got two live shows from UKGE that are going out this week and next, covering all manner of games from Wonderland’s War to The Court of Miracles, with plenty of chat about a wibbly wobbly egg.

That’s all for now! What have you been up to, everybody?

Tom’s running the video this week, so we can expect a midweek drop of something he’s been excited to work on for literally the whole year. I’ve no idea if it’s going to end up as a massive opus or something a bit more svelte, but I think it’s going to be quite a catch either way. Good luck Tom!

The podcast is a Tom and Matt affair, with chats about Sniper Elite and Space Station Phoenix. Ooh, what’s that word that’s like alliteration but specifically for esses? Hopefully we’ll find out on Friday’s podcast.

I declare Tuesday shall be a day of streaming, and in the afternoon I’ll be taking some more ‘plop-em-ups’ for a ride, as we had some good chat about them while trying out Dorfromantik. So far I think we have Townscaper and Islanders on the line up, but we might move around a bit, and if anyone’s got suggestions, let us know!

At some point in the Wednesday/Thursday nebulous VideoTime you can anticipate another fine production from Shut Up & Sit Down studios! We’re talking about a game! What game? I fear to give a single clue for the accuracy of your guesses are simply ferocious.

Twitch? Quite possibly! On Probably Thursday or Improbably Tuesday (my favourite days of the week) either myself or Ava will record video directly into the harddrive of your brain. Exciting! Expect videogames and rambles, in that order, if at all.

On Friday, you can expect a podcast where two strange hosts will chat about two strange games. Myself and Matt will first tackle the oddity that is the Sniper Elite Boardgame, before moving on to Rio Grande’s latest efficiency-obtainer Space Station Phoenix!

That’s this week! What have you been up to recently, everyone?

On Wednesday (or Thursday) you can expect a review from Quinns – a review… of something that isn’t even a board game! Absolutely repellent. If I see anything that isn’t a board game these days I become violently ill. I sleep on a bed of Memoir ‘44 and shower in a stream of wooden cubes.

Thursday will be a stream! We’re hammering out the times but you can expect an AvaStream! A potter around in the high-stakes Scrabblin’ of Babble Royale! We’ll secrete a tweet when we’re ready to go on the Twitch. Either that or I’ll be streaming more Teardown? Goodness this is disorganised – I might as well have just written ‘something is happening on Thursday’.

Something is Happening on Friday. It will be a podcast, where myself and Matt and Ava will be talking about Founders of Teotihuacan and Khora: Rise of an Empire! Both quite dry games and we were all slightly delirious when we recorded it – so that’s fun.

And that’s this week on Shut Up & Sit Down! Lots to look forward to from all members of the team, there.

What are you looking forward to this week, everyone? Or what did you get up to? I don’t make the rules.

Wednesday bears the fruit of the oft-delayed, mythologised Ava review – arriving after a long period of Matt chipping away in the After Effects mines. ‘This is maybe the best thing I’ve ever done!’ he cries from the depths. We solemnly nod along, knowing well he is lost forever.

Thursday stream! We’re playing more Teardown! Stream will be on the Twitch sometime in the ‘English Afternoon’ – a period of time that occurs after a second cup of coffee but before kissing the Queen goodnight.

Friday is pod-day, and Tom and Quinns have kind words to say about Imperial Steam and The Guild of Merchant Explorers. Good luck keeping those titles in your head for the rest of the day, let alone the rest of the week!

And that’s all for this week! I’ve managed to grievously injure my finger in an act of Aubergine Revenge, so this entire post was typed with my ‘non-dominant’ fingers, or, if you’d rather, my submissive fingers *eyes emoji*. I’ve lost a lot of blood.

Week! Everybody up to what’s goinn onnnnnn….?

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I’ll be doing streaming more Teardown in the afternoon – you can find that over on the Twitch channel for some incredibly poorly planned heists. I’m loving it so far, so please do come say hi and give me more terrible ideas for what to do with explosives.

On Thursday, it’s video day! You can expect another outstanding performance from Ava Foxfort in a searing hot double-review! This, of course, will be a review of the other B-Based game as alluded to in last week’s post. And like a cardboard Carol Vorderman I will reveal another letter…. it’s an S! Tune in next week for another sweet drop.

Matt: You’ve somehow managed to misunderstand both Countdown and our website in just two sentences.

Tom: And on Friday, as always, we’re podcastin’. Tom and Quinns are going to talk about whatever they end up playing on Thursday – who knows what that’ll be! Find out then for a nice surprise.

Until then, have a great week! I’m enjoying my bank holiday Monday playing some Knotwords and writing this post on the sofa. I have become truly decadent with a cheap keyboard and a trusty Steam Link. What have you been up to, everybody?

On maybe Wednesday this week, I think I’ll stream some Teardown – the heisty puzzly destructy game that I’ve been waiting to sink my teeth into for a good while now. I was chuckling away to myself playing the first few missions, so you can see some of those chuckles LIVE on Wednesday (maybe).

On Thursday, you can expect A VIDEO. We’ve got two cooking simultaneously, so it’s whoever gets their edit to the finish line first! Place your bets! I’m really bad at writing the tease for these things, but know that both of the games have a ‘B’ in them somewhere. And one of the reviews is for two games – each with its own B. Ferocious.

Friday? It’s pod-day. We’ll talk about ‘some games’ – I have no idea which. I created that really quite ghastly deep dream image for this post to avoid any responsibilities about games that will or will not be covered, but honestly all I’ve done is scare myself. Stick that in your earholes!!

That’s this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

On Wednesday, which is another day, Quinns is going to be catapulting a video over your castle walls and slap-bang in the middle of your donjon. You might think that the game in question has a medieval theme but no! I’ve just got castles on the brain and a dictionary at my fingertips.

After missing a TUNIC last week, I should be able to slice off a little time to partake once more, hopefully finishing it sans-secrets. I might do a secret-hunting stream at some point too! Though I’m thinking about switching the combat off after not enjoying that particular part of the game that much, especially whilst streaming.

Aaaand on Friday you can expect some kind of podbeast with myself and Ava, or maybe no podcast at all? Ava has been experiencing turbo-illness, but signs are pointing to hopefully everything being right as rain come Thursday – but if not, you know why!

That’s all this week! If you’ve any questions they will go unanswered! What have you been up to, everybody?

If you’re into board games and fancy a trip to the astonishing city of Vancouver then do consider getting a ticket to one of the best places to play boardgames ON THE PLANET! Multiple days of great games and great people; I highly recommend it.

But that’s AGES away! You’re dang right it is. You’re here to hear about what’s happening RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW ON THIS WEEK ON SHUT UP & SIT DOWN!! LET’S GO!!!

No video this week, unfortunately, due to another Ava-shaped member of the team getting slapped with a big stick made of ‘illness’. We should have something for you next week! That’s the Tom Brewster promise – a promise which is more of a suggestion. But a good one!!

You can probably expect one more TUNIC stream this week – not sure when, but I think I’ll make it my goal to finish the game on this one – I can sense that I’m (maybe) near the end?! We’ll see. After that, I’m seeking out what to stream next – I’ve been getting back into Stellaris, starting a new character on Elden Ring, and eyeing up Teardown’s official campaign release. Suggestions for what you might fancy seeing… below!

At the tail-end of the week, we’re podcasting! We’ll most likely be chatting about Switch and Signal as well as a collection of other boxes, but that’s a.) subject to change and b.) i haven’t got a picture of Switch and Signal for the header – hence the astounding image you see in its stead. 

That’s this week! I’m going to get back to an absolute monster of a script, but in the meantime… what have you been up to, everybody?

But that’s enough about me, let’s find out what Shut Up & Sit Down is doing to keep the magic alive this week.

On Tuesday Tom’s diving back into Tunic for more cosy little livestream action. It’s not a boardgame, but it is adorable, and so’s Tom, so it should be nice. He’s popping on stream intermittently at the moment and I’ve only got to jump into chat a little bit, but it looks proper cosy.

Wednesdayish is review dayish! Matt’s got a little treat for everybody, like the hairy pixie he is. We’ll keep a lid on what he’s mixing up, not least because you never know when a plan might change!

Finally Friday, that wearisome end to the week, will be brightened just a little by the chance to listen to some voices! Quinns and Tom have got a couple of two word games on the tips of their tongues. Crescent Moon looks like another delightful fighty treat from Osprey, and I don’t know anything about Bear Raid, but presumably there’s bears, doing raids! I’ll have to tune in on Friday to be able to actually pretend to know what I’m talking about.

How did you stave off the weary wait this weekend?

Technically Ready

The mysteries continue: We’ve also got, potentially, another Tunic stream with Tom this week – You can watch the last bits as VODs on Twitch: give the channel a follow if you want to be notified if and when he’s logging on for more chill times.

Finally, Friday’s podcast features Memoir 44: New Flight Plan, Illumination and possibly more?! Who can truly know what lies within the heart of pod?

I must depart the mystery zone now, as there are too many mysteries and I am getting scared. What are you getting up to this week, and how scared are you about that on a scale of 1 to 10?

We’ve got a nice little week lined up for you! On Wednesday, you can enjoy a video review where I’m going to talk about a little collection of different games that are not at all related. It’s a review roundup! Recorded in slightly slapdash style, I’m hoping it’ll provide a looser alternative to our more robustly structured videos. I finally get to talk about a game that I’ve wanted to sing the praises of for ages! Wahoo! That’ll be Wednesday; or Thursday if the paella I just ate starts to really disagree with me.

Then, on Friday, Ava and I are chatting about Museum: Pictura and Art Decko in our artists special! Enjoy some general nattering about two games we think are just fine, alongside a quick dollop of general art-in-games conjecture! It was a fun one to record and hopefully you’ll treat your ears to our nonsense.

I might also squeak in a little stream this week, if the video is done on time. A casual ramble through some Tunic – because I played a little and found it simply delightful. That’ll happen as and when I work out how to do streams again.

That’s all from us this week! What have you been up to, everybody?

Wait, what does it say here…Matt’s got Covid? You’ve got to be joking. Tom’s already had that! At least the sewage was original.

Disruptotron 2022: Ha ha ha ha ha. Disruptotron cares not for originality. Only disruption.

Ava: I mean, I guess the clue’s in the name right.

We’re all obviously rooting for Matt, and trying to get him to put down his work for a bit. But we wanted to let you know that we might need to be a little bit vague about this week, as we may have to do some last minute shuffling.

That said, we’re still going to bring you whatever we can, because we all still really, really like boardgames. And we like you too, dear reader.

So, in the middle of the week, we may well be seeing a big ol’ chunk of review from Tom. A little pile of somethings he’s been working on for a while, and may be a little bit different. Good luck Tom! I’m excited for it. (Even if we might have to push it back into next week. Fingers crossed!)

Tom: The script literally says ‘try and make this one easier for yourself please’ in bold at the top and I have absolutely failed so far.

Ava: Oh dear

Well, at least on Friday it’s podcast time! I’ve got so, so many things to talk about. My elaborate moving process has disrupted a lot of my work-doings, but it hasn’t stopped me playing. Not least with a flying visit to Airecon over the weekend, catching up with some old pals, and checking out quite a few demos. It’s a very cosy convention. Am I on this one?

Tom: No! Me and Quinns are talking about Gugong and Lizard Wizard and will be taking no further questions. It is codenamed the ‘lazy sunday episode’ and we tried our utmost to stick to that theme.

Ava: Delightful! Well that’s sort of a week, isn’t it? There’s nothing left but to ask about what you’ve all been up to this weekend?

Disruptotron 2022: Actually it’s been a really tough year for me, so many places to be, so much disruption. I’m getting pretty tired.

Ava: I am struggling to have much sympathy, pal. But do take it easy, we could all use a break, frankly.

….What are we doing this week? We’re not entirely sure. Matt’s busy moving large amounts of technology in a big truck, Ava is stranded in a no-internet wasteland, and Quinns and I are figuring out what to do with ourselves.

We could squeeze a video review out of Quinns, but it could also turn up midway through next week, instead! We’re fairly sure a podcast will appear, but what’s it going to be about? Potentially it’ll be a companion piece to our recent Bitoku episode, as Quinns introduces me to the wonderful world of Gugong! We’ll have to wait and see.

Mystery week! That’s got quite the ring to it. Take my hand and embark into the ship of who-knows-where, bobbing on an ocean of cardboard; we’re going on an adventure! Or the adventure might be postponed, we’ll see.

But, in the meantime… What are you all up to, this week?

We’re releasing my first solo video! Matt’s had to lend a hand with the editing, but my first field report will be winging its way to you in the middle of this week. I’m excited to tell you about an old favourite of mine, and hopefully do some very silly things.

Friday will hopefully be a late notice, extreme-funtime podcast – exact content to be determined!

This time of year, as Spring starts springing in the northern halfball, is so exciting to me. Hope and growth and new and bright.

So, what did you get up to over the weekend, and what are you excited for over the coming seasons?

Weather conditions, illness, and spectacularly exciting plumbing problems have been testing us over the last few weeks – but we’re mostly back on track! Join us this Friday for the next episode of the podcast, in which Tom and Quinns take a deep dive into the world of Unmatched expansions. Which are worth a look? Find out SOON.

What are you lot up to this week? Anything particularly glamorous or exciting?

We were intending to have a hot hot video review up on the site this week – the very first solo outing from Ava Foxfort! But, due to a generally horrifying plumbing accident (the likes of which cannot be repeated in ANY MEDIUM) we have had to postpone. Look forward to that in the future, and look forward to a review from myself and Matt next week! I’ve just realised that this sounds like myself and Matt have sabotaged Ava’s plumbing to get our review out earlier; and I promise that has not been proven yet.

What can you look forward to this week, then? Matt and I have taken a peek at Kickstarter behemoth The Great Wall as well as Wise Guys – the funky new version of the Sons of Anarchy board game from Gale Force 9! We’ve also loaded that podcast with a giant spoilery bullet for The Initiative, if you do want to dabble in secrets on a Friday evening. Other than that, it’s a quiet week as we gear up for a very exciting slate of content to come in the next few weeks! Oh, and I’m thinking about streaming some video games… anything people reckon would make good viewing for board game fans? 

Take it easy folks! And, as always, what have you been up to recently?

This week on the very Shut Up & Sit Down website, Matt is taking the lead (to buy me some time for me to sing the praises of a little box in MY next review) and reviewing something he’s been excited enough about that I’m now also excited. Isn’t it great that it’s possible for enthusiasm to catch?

That should be Wednesday or thereabouts, and then Thursday, there may be a little sneaky surprise of a launch event on the old twitch channel. Don’t touch that dial if you want to catch some of us doing something silly. Though I guess it’s Twitch not radio so its more ‘set your notifications and then notice them at the right time’.

Finally on Friday, it’s a triple-headed pod-beast, as me, Quinns and Tom shake the cobwebs out and talk about some board games! We’ve got Ishtar, a desertified garden-grower that isn’t as fertile a crescent as I was hoping. Tom wants to talk about Endangered, and how good and/or bad he is at saving animals from endangerers. Finally Tom and Quinns delve into the beautiful duelling card game Radlands, and ask me if I can adjudicate a tricky piece of board game etiquette. I haven’t got a gavel though.

So, folks, what board game problems do YOU want me to pass judgment on? Do we reckon I can become an agony aunt? I’ll ask Matt. You’re probably better off just telling me what you got up to this weekend.

On Wednesday we’ve got a chunky one – it’s Quinns’ first big review of the year: a game I’ve checked out briefly that seemed seriously legit, but apparently I hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of? Excited to get around to watching that one myself, keep your eyes peeled.

On Friday you should join us for the latest podcast, in which we chat Town Builder: Coevorden, Welcome To The Moon, and have a brief mention of Equinox – which I reviewed last week. Gosh I don’t quite love that game, but I certainly love a lot of stuff about it. My next review, though? Well that’s just a whole bucket of love.

Finally, this Friday I’ll be live on Twitch as part of Board Game Yogi’s show – it looks like it’ll be a great one, tune in!

What did you get up to the weekend, everybody? Personally, I baked an acceptable cake.

Well, let’s start with Wednesday – where Matt is going to be providing us with a review of an unforgettable game that we all sat down to last year and have fermented our coverage of since; like a big yeasty bubble ready to burst at any minute. Hopefully, the minute will be on Wednesday – around dinnertime if possible, please.

On Friday we’ll be podcasting – Ava and Matt have had a ramble about two of the heaviest games we played over in the states before PAXU – The Great Zimbabwe and The Gallerist. I just finished editing that one and I’m undecided on titling; it’s between the broad and boring ‘The Heavysode’ or the slightly nicher, more-of-a-stretch: ‘The Heavysode Layer’. If the latter didn’t make you groan audibly, let me know and we’ll go ahead and call it that.

And in terms of the year? It’s all too soon to say, but I think I’m mostly focusing on trying out a couple new video formats to see what suits both myself and you lovely people watching! Let’s get in the sandpit and ‘have a dabble’, who knows what could go wrong (or right!).

Right! That’s Mondays! But more importantly; what did you get up to the weekend, everybody?

Wednesday is about time for a review. And I am telling you right now so you can get furiously hype, because it’s not really just one review it’s three reviews. Three cosy games, considered by two of your favourite reviewers and…drum roll please… a single your favourite Ava!* This triple bill has come together over the last few weeks, and is going to be my first video where I did the production for my bit from beginning to (nearly) end. I’m excited about that. Please be nice!

Then on Friday, it’s time for a kids-aren’t-here cast, with Quinns and Matt getting to say anything they like without risk of offending mine and Tom’s delicate dispositions. They’re going to be talking about Brick and Mortar and Rush Out!, along with a little post video chat about Matt’s recent Furnace review (which you should watch, it made me laugh like a…furnace????)

So that’s all from us in terms of the old posts, but hopefully (and honestly, recent news is making it look a bit less likely, and we’ll obviously be prioritising safety for us and others), we’re all then leaving on a big old trip that will culminate in a visit to PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia. As far as I understand, that’s not even in Yorkshire! It will be lovely to have the gang together, and hopefully there’s a couple of live podcasts and shows we’re in, some of which will go online, at some point. I am a big mix of excited and nervous. I’ve not been on a stage since I did a terrible job pretending to be a Scout Commissioner for a Batman-themed comedy sketch. And that was before Tom was even born.

That’s far enough off topic for now. Hope you all have a lovely week. And if you want to share your excitement, nervousness, or most embarrassing stage performances below, I’d be delighted to read them.

*No guarantees of Ava-Quality available. Other Avas are available.

Below you’ll find links and a brief description of each game, but for more detailed explanations and recommendations, be sure to listen to the podcast episode that’s paired with this post – in which the whole team go through these individual choices. Thanks for reading and listening along, and do share the article or podcast if you think it’s a valuable resource for others this year. Much love from all of us – LET’S GO!
 

Super Skill Pinball: Ramp It Up

Players roll one set of dice that everyone then uses, choosing the next nearby location with a matching die-face to send their pinball pinging off towards. Push your luck and achieve killer combos, or take the safer option? This pinball-inspired Roll & Write that plays up to 4, but our very own Tom Brewster swears that it shines brightest when played alone for high-scores. A small box of shiny, ridiculous delights. Perfect for pinball enthusiasts or solitary thinkers – just maybe don’t mention which of the two you’ve got them pegged as. Check out our review.
 

The Fuzzies

Alternate-reality Jenga designed by aliens, The Fuzzies is a surprisingly compelling exercise in denying physics their right to exist – players take it in turns to remove a fuzzy ball from anywhere on the tower, placing it in a higher location than it previously sat. A tiny handful of rules later, and you’re good to go – with the real joy slowly settling in as you realise that these strange grippy things behave in a way that almost feels like magic. This small, lightweight crowd-pleaser requires dexterity and deftness that not everyone has, but it’s joyful to behold – even if you aren’t playing. See it in action here, in our full review.

Buy CA: https://bit.ly/CA-TF
Buy US: https://bit.ly/TF-US
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/AUS-TF
 

What Next?

A multiplayer re-imagining of the Choose Your Own Adventure genre – three small stories of choices and challenges, muddled together with truly gorgeous components. Replaying through scenarios to find the optimal solutions, you’ll be tasked with small physical mini-games to pass challenges. Sky-scraper capers and exploring Koala Cove, this is a colourful, modern take on a classic style of game that older folks will be well-familiar with.

Buy US: https://bit.ly/WN-US
 

Decrypto

The small-box code-cracker that continues to delight. Two teams must work to communicate safely with one another, while not giving away so much information that the other team are able to intercept their codes. Tougher to teach and play than the mega-hit Codenames, but vastly more rewarding. A SU&SD classic we just can’t get rid of – this cerebral party game might be your next family favourite. Watch our review!

Buy UK: https:// bit.ly/DeC-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/Decrypto-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/DecryptoUS
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/DeC-Aus
 

Confident: The Guess a Range Party Game

Another dramatically simple set of rules that achieves more than you’d expect – this orange box of questions each has a numerical answer that players need to estimate by offering a range of numbers that they think will contain the answer. Really though, this one requires no quiz-skills to master: party game silliness means that much of the game is less about getting things right yourself, and more about correctly estimating who you’ll think around the table is most likely to have nailed it. Discussed in Episode 101 of the podcast! Oh, and if you’re unfamiliar with the beautiful language – check out this video for the Welsh version of the game.

Buy US: https://bit.ly/Conf-US
 

Barenpark

Tile-laying puzzler with adorable bears. Collect strangely-shaped enclosures and then strategically place them on your empty plots of land, turning the chaos of bad shapes into something neat and tidy. Gently making shapes and filling gaps in your playerboards doesn’t get smoother and nicer than this – the ideal gift for those who prefer quieter games, with minimal confrontation. Although you’ll still get stressed about where to put the toilets. Watch our full review here, including the monorail expansion.

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/baren-uk
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/baren-ca
Buy US: https://bit.ly/baren-us
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/baren-au
 

Lost Cities – Roll and Write

The tightly-packed version of a classic. Players must choose whether to persist with progress in expeditions they’ve already embarked on, or play it risky and start new adventures in tandem. Tricky choices and rapid hubris make this an easy crowd-pleaser. If you’re a fan of rolling dice and then writing things down, for Ava’s money this is the best gift available. Discussed in Episode 154 of the podcast!

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/lost-uk
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/lc-ca
Buy US: https://bit.ly/lost-us
 

Just One

A huge hit in the party game scene, and for good reason: there aren’t many games this clever that only require a handful of brain cells to comfortably play. A single player must guess the correct word – everyone else must guide them towards it by writing down a single-word clue, with the caveat that all duplicate clues will be erased before the guessing player sees them. A collaborative gem that takes moments to teach, and rapidly becomes raucous. Discussed in Episode 90 of the podcast!

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/J1-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/J1-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/J1-US
 

For Sale

A two-phased auction game that is light, immediate, and deeply silly – while also dripping with simple thematic charm. Will you end up stinking rich and owning a castle, or spending 15k on a cardboard box? Tactical & smart and yet lucky & light, this is a beloved classic for good reason. Discussed in Episode 99 of the podcast!

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/FSale-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/FSale-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/FSale-US
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/FSale-AU
 

The Quest for El Dorado

A family board game of bold exploration – build up a personal deck of cycling cards that you’ll successfully use to snag the treasures of El Dorado. Players race across an expanded board of large hexagonal tiles, in this – the most board-game-looking game of this year’s recommendations. A beloved classic by Reiner Knizia – who is widely regarded as being “The Best”, and we probably shouldn’t have spent years representing him as a deranged man in a grey wig failing to pilot a spaceship. Check out our full review of the base game, and the expansion.

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/QED-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/QED-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/QED-US
 

Quacks of Quedlinburg

The family game that Matt simply won’t stop recommending, this push-your-luck game of brewing risky potions is a joyful experience from start to finish. Earn gold to buy ingredients that you’ll then randomly pull out of your own personal bag, hoping that you won’t go too far and explode your cauldron in the process. Raucous, loud and comedically unfair, you only need look at how grubby that white token in the photograph above is to get a sense of how many times this gem has hit our table. Check out our full review, which features a frankly misguided use of paint cannons.

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/QoQ-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/QoQ-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/QoQ-US
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/QoQ-AU
 

Galaxy Trucker

Hubris and silliness finally tie the knot: in SPACE. This modern classic has finally seen a reprint, and you’ve every reason to be excited – players assemble ships from a communal collection of face-down tiles, peeking and placing whilst working against the clock. The fabulous/terrible ships you’ve each constructed will then be put through their paces in the field, as you attempt to lug cargo from A to B whilst keeping your rapidly-assembled ship in one piece. If drastically unfortunate strokes of poor luck sound like the ideal recipe for a great night, this is the one you want. Watch the digital version of the game in action here, in which Matt went head-to-head against Tom.

Buy UK: https://bit.ly/GTrucker-UK
Buy CA: https://bit.ly/GTrucker-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/GTrucker-US
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/GTrucker-AU
 

Monikers: Serious Nonsense Box

Finally – after an extended length of time in which this game was sold out – we hope you’ll allow us to be VERY CHEEKY here and give a brief plug for a game that we made. The Serious Nonsense Box is a stand-alone expansion to the game Monikers – a beautifully produced party game in which you’ll play through several rounds, trying to get your team to guess the title of as many cards as possible – whilst against the clock.

In the first round you can say almost anything, or even just read out the card’s descriptions – but by the final round you’ll only be able to act out the titles using silent charades. What initially sounds impossible becomes a magic trick in familiarity, and we took this formula and honed it further to specifically amplify the capacity of players to be naturally funny, writing hundreds of new cards and keeping the cream of the crop.

If you want a comedy party game that doesn’t feel the need to get grim or punch-down, we’re pretty proud and confident of what we’ve crafted here. But don’t just take our word for it, obviously! Check out someone else’s review!

Buy CA: https://bit.ly/MonSN-CA
Buy US: https://bit.ly/MonSN-US
Buy AU: https://bit.ly/MonSN-AU

So what else is going on this week, exactly? This Wednesday I will be returning to the fray with a fresh video review of a *corking* little cruncher, and this Friday we hope to have a podcast Of Some Description appearing online? It’s a little up-in-the-air, we’ve got a lot of technical wiggling that’s needed to get things properly working – but rest assured I am busy behind the scenes fighting the Chaos Magicians and their nefarious bowl-based plans for supremacy. Absolutely no Terra Mystica related stuff going up on the website this week though, I should clarify. No idea where you got that idea from, Steven – frankly you’ve made a fool of yourself.

How are you folks holding up? And what have you done this week to deter the wider influence of the Chaos Magicians?

So what are we filling those seconds with? Well, we’ll play some games, we’re all doing admin to get us to Pax Unplugged in December, various videos will be carefully carved into different stages of existence and we’ll be chatting and planning and podding and sustaining our fragile physical forms so we can keep on telling you about ledes we have buried.

On which topic, let’s talk about what’s actually happening on the website this week.

On Wednesday, Quinns has been investigating a positively angelic game, and is going to show you exactly what he thinks of it. My understanding is he’s pretty excited for this one, which makes me excited too.

Friday is podcast day, and your second helping of Quinns will be served with a side of hot, buttered Tom. The two of them are talking about games they’ve been playing with their living fingers, in their living rooms, whilst looking directly into each other’s living eyes! How’s that for boardgames? On the list is Brian Boru, the game of taking tricks and marrying Estrids – and Mind MGMT, a hidden movement game based on a comic book, but not (to my knowledge), an ebullient noughties indie band. They’ve also got a little stash of ‘trivia about their latest reviews’. I don’t even know what that means, but I think I’ll have to have a listen. Maybe you should too?

How about you folks? How are you going to make this week completely and incontrovertibly unique?

Quinns: Hello! Is everybody ready for a three day board game party? We don’t have cake, gifts or music, but we do have board games, card games and (checks notes) even more board games!

The third ever AwSHUX, our free online edition of the SU&SD convention, starts today. Unconvinced? Don’t take my word for it – visit the official site RIGHT NOW and start exploring its many hype-filled chambers and unexpected offerings!

Through that link you’ll find an Aladdin’s cave of content. There are treacherous piles of upcoming games, plenty of shiny new features, and even glimmering giveaways. Here’s a helpful list of what not to miss:

• Over on our YouTube channel we have just this moment UNLEASHED six videos, each containing a bundle of previews of upcoming games, presented by Tom, Matt and myself. It’s ridiculous. Seriously, there are now hours of new SU&SD content for you to check out.
• More than 30 hours’ of programming will soon start on our Twitch channel, which for the duration of AwSHUX resembles a SU&SD television channel! We’ve got panels, special guests, game shows, and an absolute boatload of programming where you can watch team SU&SD play unreleased games. Find the schedule in the above header image!
• But SHUX isn’t just about looking at games, pawing at your monitor like a kitten at a window. This weekend you can play games free on Tabletopia – use the code SHUX2021AGAIN to get 7 days of free Gold Access! Here’s how to apply your coupon code.
• Can’t find the game you want on Tabletopia? Try these other options: BGA (free), Sovranti (Platinum access through to Nov 30th 2021 with code SHUXfall21), Yucata (free), Boîte à Jeux (free), TTS (buy on steam).
• Can’t find people to play with? This weekend, you can! If you just head over to the official AwSHUX Discord server you’ll find plenty of “open gaming” channels where you can find people just like you who are looking to set up a game. Alternatively, you can even have games taught to you by the publishers themselves in the #looking-for-demo channel!
• Finally (and you can expect to hear a lot more about this on the site in the coming days), we’ve only gone and made another official stand alone SU&SD expansion for a game, this time the superb MonsDRAWsity with the fine folks at Deep Water Games. Here’s Tom announcing the project and the KS Notify Me page which I believe goes live on the 26th of this month, but if you’re just totally uncertain as to why you should be excited, you’ll find our podcast chat about Monsdrawsity on episode #123.

But it’ll all be worth it, because AwSHUX is, frankly, amazing. Loads of streaming with a huge range of special guests, a digital convention hall with more streams, previews and general showing-off, a discord server full of people playing and demoing games, and our live podcast and late night Q&A. It’s just so much stuff, all celebrating games and supporting the publishers that have struggled through a hugely challenging time.

So while we’re doing that, we’re pausing our video and podcast production. Does that mean you won’t get anything to watch and listen to? No! We’re going to be uploading some of our favourite panels and shows from the last AwSHUX to keep you company.

Right. I’ve got a puzzle to solve and some editing to do. Have a lovely week and I hope we see you at AwSHUX!

After my lukewarm review of Descent: Legends in the Dark last week, on Thursday you can look forward to a review from Tom over on our YouTube channel that’s very positive indeed. What game is he looking at? Alas, I know this is criminal behaviour, but I simply can’t tell you.

And then on Friday we’ve got a podcast where we’ll be talking about a few new games, and among them will be Hadrian’s Wall (pictured above). That’s gonna be an exciting discussion for me because actually, Hadrian’s Wall is a game that I’ve been asking for for years- namely, a game that asks the question “What if a roll’n’write but MORE? More rules, more decisions, more considerations?” So I got my wish, but did I actually enjoy myself? Find out on Friday.

But honestly, mostly this week I’ll be knuckling down to start filming my share of the preview videos which will all flop onto our YouTube channel on the first day of AWSHUX. And oh my goodness, you folks can look forward to some stone-cold corkers this time around. I expect at least one or two of these will go on to become SU&SD reviews.

Ah, but I don’t want to tease you! I’ll keep quiet and just get on with my work.

Quinns is taking a big look at a literally massive game over on the YouTube channel this Wednesday, in a review that he’s currently ‘picking beard hairs out of [his] nose and mouth’ for! Such commitment to ‘the bit’, we do love to see it.

Over in pod-town, you’ve got myself and Ava doing a bit of a roundup of some games that have been sat on shelves, patiently awaiting coverage. We’re going to be talking about Ganymede and PARKS – two nice games about visiting places – but also finding a chunk of time to natter about the big hot miniatures game doing the rounds right now – Ankh: Gods of Egypt! Is it good? Ankhs me that on Friday. I’m so sorry.

Still no stream this week, as Matt pours all of his spare hours into AwSHUX – a colossal engine that only accepts time and sweat as fuel.

But that’s all in the future and therefore I cannot possibly think about it! I’ve got to get back of packing all my cardboard boxes into smaller cardboard boxes so I can put them in a metal box on wheels to be shipped down South – focusing all my energy into the chunky endeavour of moving house! See you next week! But until then… what have you been up to, everybody?

Ava and I are both trying to find houses! Matt’s holed-up in an AwSHUX tech-cave! Quinns is sipping margaritas in the Shut Up & Sit Down company retirement jazz lounge. It is how it is.

Next week though, we’ve got one of this year’s biggest reviews for you to delve into – and the week after that? I’ll be breaking open a sublime sequel. Watch this space!

But what about the podcast? This week, Matt and myself will be talking about whatever we end up playing this week – the ‘Matt’s ShelfCast’, if you will. Normally we think these things through, but this time you’re getting a podcast of undiluted mystery!

That’s the week, and a bit of next! But what have you been up to, everybody?

The sky outside is bruised and moist (perfect weather for staying indoors with a game), I’ve got TWO big, great games that I’m playing exhaustively for my next great big reviews, and just minutes ago I received a package containing Brian Boru from Osprey Games*. Tabletop publishers around the world might still be struggling with punishing shipping problems, but I can at least promise that my advocacy on SU&SD will be as honest as ever.

This week on the site we’ve got a video and a podcast for you. At some point in the middle of the week Tom will be going green in the week’s video review, and then on Friday you can look forward to a podcast where Tom and I talk about Magnate: The First City, North Berkeley and Witchstone. Two games about property development and one game about witches who are only tangentially interested in property.

How are you doing, everybody? Have you been affected by publishing woes? Or have you, like me, just been having a great time playing games?

* I don’t even know what Brian (Mr. Boru?) is yet, but I feel like I can rely on Osprey to deliver something polished and deliciously unexpected.

This very Thursday will bring Quinns’ wonderful face back to your screens. He’s been chiselling out a review of two entire games by one whole designer. It’s a double bill! Hopefully the games won’t end up at war with each other.

Friday remains podcast time, and me and Tom have got a couple of interesting boxes to dig into. Tom has been playing Luna Capital, a game where space is finally corrupted by capitalism? I’ve dug into two games that are versions of other games, and I’ve ended up with some thoughts, those being Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition and Lost Cities: Roll & Write.

We’re still taking a bit of a break from streaming, so nothing on Tuesday, I’m afraid (though I’m using the free time to do something exciting that might end up in a podcast at some point).

How’s everyone handling/avoiding/planning to deal with the chaos? Have a wonderful week!

On Thursday, we’ll be publishing a searing hot review of lots of games at once. We’re filming it in approximately 13 hours, and we’ll have it delivered into your waiting palms within around… 67? Depends entirely on how fast I can edit and how fast Quinns can shoot B-Roll… Wait… does that mean? YEAH IT DOES! That’s right, it’s the year’s first two-head review! We’re slowly clambering back to normal after some year(s) of sitting alone and going slowly strange.

But what has Friday got in store? Dependable as ever, it’s the Shut Up & Sit Down podcast – where we’re giving our first impressions on the tumultuous Sleeping Gods, and some more in-depth impressions of the utterly terrifying Hostage Negotiator: Career. Two big games and three nice people! What a way to spend a Friday evening.

That’s the week! No stream unfortunately, but those Tuesday goodtimes will be back soon enough. But what have you been up to, everybody?

After collectively admitting to being ‘a bit knackered’ in the company Slack, we’re sliding our schedule around like a knob of butter in a hot pan. We figured a little breathing room would recharge some creative batteries and let us come out swinging with our next batch of reviews, podcasts, and streams; or to continue this strained and unhelpful metaphor – cook you all up some premium egg.

That’s it! That’s the Monday post! No video, stream or pod this week, but some fun stuff to look forward to very soon. We’ve got our first collaborative videos of 2021 on the docket, we’ve got reviews of games new ‘n old, and we’ve got bags of stuff to pod about! I’ve been particularly fortunate in my recent plays, sitting down to the daunting Sleeping Gods, the bureaucratic North Berkeley, and the twisty little trick-taker Shamans. I’ve also played an avalanche of Brass: Birmingham. Games are so good! Who knew?

But that’s enough from me, for now! What have you been up to, everybody?

Tomorrow’s stream sees myself and Matt going head-to-head with Caesar, the latest two-player seize-’em-up from Blitzkrieg and Ethnos designer Paolo Mori. Quinns and I played a game of it the other day and determined it was ‘chewy’ and ‘different’ in a way that was both appealing and agonising. Catch that at 7pm BST over on our Twitch.

Wednesday’s review is a Lees special, with a game that’s maybe one of the most Matt things I’ve ever seen in the 200,000+ hours I’ve spent on this earth. I found it intensely amusing watching the team hunched over this thing when I arrived for our week in Oxford two months ago – sweating into the table and fretting about whether the game ‘counted’ for the victory spreadsheet. More of that this Wednesday.

Then, on Friday, we’ll be releasing our pod-dog into the wild with a chat about some lovely lovely games. We’ll be strolling down the big egypt river in Egizia, as well as lopping some royal heads in Regicide. We might even talk about some other games if we’ve got time, I’ve been playing so many things recently!

AND speaking of “recently”, what have you been up to this week, everybody?

First up, on Tuesday, we’ll be jumping into the stream on Twitch and playing a whole game of Iberian Gauge, the third (and most interesting?) installment of Capstone Games’ Iron Rails series. This one offers a simplified stonks and shares train game with a lot of Spanish spice in it. It’s like an 18xx game that won’t make me cry with stress. Or will it? Let’s find out on Tuesday evening with me, Tom and Matt.

Then in the middle of the week, it’s Tom’s turn for a review, and it’s probably the game I’m most jealous of Tom for getting to review, because for me, it’s potentially my favourite game to come out in the last three years. Definitely make sure you’re ready to tune in as soon as it washes up.

Finally Friday, suddenly Seymour, perpetually podcast? I’m getting carried away with myself. Friday is the day when the podcasts come out, and this one should be a little treat. Me and Quinns found ourselves in a slightly odd mood and still managed to talk about two cute games that we kinda liked a bit? Fast Sloths makes us think about Friedmann Friese, and Trek 12 gets our tongues twisted.

Lovely stuff. So tell me lovelies, what have you been up to this weekend and what are you excited for this week?

Our Tuesday streams got a bit de-railed over the last few weeks, but we’re back on track with the stuff that we missed: tomorrow we’ll be streaming Star Scrappers: Orbital over on our Twitch channel! It’s by the designer of Terraforming Mars – should be an interesting one! This week’s review is a game that had Quinns appear in the company Slack not too long ago saying: “I just had one of my gaming experiences of the year” – so you’ll not want to miss that one, either…

Finally, this Friday’s podcast will feature the tales and exploits of Mr Tom Brewster – the superhero who was able to visit the UK Games Expo just this weekend, after being bitten by a radioactive spider that had covid, getting covid, and temporarily having immunity to covid that allowed him to comfortably exist in public spaces. Pow! He’s my favourite superhero, I can’t wait to see him get his time in the spotlight within the wider MCU.

Finally, I’ll take a brief moment to highlight something from LAST week on SU&SD: this special edition of the podcast in which I interviewed Andrew Navaro was a pleasure to record, and we’re incredibly lucky to have had someone of his experience provide such an array of candid and clear thoughts on both the past and future of the industry. I think it’s really worth a listen.

What have you folks been up to lately? I’ve been chipping away at a little project to organise and store all my TI4 stuff in the main box – I’m a sucker for little construction projects. It’s like they always say: If it isn’t lasagne, it’s only something else.

Am I referring to the anxiety brought on by launching our 10th Anniversary Donation Drive? I am not, no. I trust you folks to do the right thing!

Instead, I am clammy because this week England entered the vanishingly small segment of the year where the sun actually shows up, turning our population into 56 million slowly-sizzling and noisily distressed beefsteaks.

Fortunately for you, the editorial team of SU&SD are absolute pros who won’t be stopped by still air, who won’t be held HOSTAGE by HUMIDITY. You’ll see evidence of this on Tuesday, when we’ll be streaming Star Scrappers: Orbital over on our Twitch channel! This is a game of steadily building out your very own sci-fi space station from the designer of no less than Terraforming Mars.

Our big feature this week will land on Thursday, when Tom will publish a video reviewing all of the expansions of a beloved game that has too many expansions. What could I be referring to, do you think.. ?

Finally, on Friday Tom and I will be releasing one “podcast”! This one’s a brutal business special, with us chatting about asbestos industry-simulator The Cost and historical factory manager Arkwright: The Card Game.

What a week! Wow. Alright, I’m off to wipe myself down again.

But you know what, despite the bleakness, I’m as excited as ever to be welcoming you to a new week of shutting up and sitting down on Shut Up & Sit Down. Although to be fair, it’s going to be a slightly weird week.

Eagle-eyed readers will be aware that we didn’t manage to get our scheduled podcast up on Friday, due to a little thing called ‘illness’. Me and Tom had separate poorlies going on, and it threw everything out of shape, sorry! Jumping in to save the day, Quinns edited his lovely AwShux fireside chat with In Sente, the world’s coolest Go teacher? It’s a broad talk about teaching difficult games and it’s available right now for your ears.

On Friday, we are going to be delving into the world of Bullet <3, a deeply unusual arcade battler boardgame and the preview module for Teeth: Night of the Hogmen, a zine length role-playing game that I have THINGS I want to talk about. Bullet-Teeth! That sounds cool, right?

We are hopefully streaming on Tuesday, but we’re still not sure exactly what’s going to be landing, as it depends on ‘the health’ of ‘the team’, which is something we will always prioritise! Hopefully, me, Tom and Matt will be digging into Umbra Via, but there is scope for there to be more schedule shuffling.

In between all that, because I’ve definitely written this in the most optimal order, on Wednesday we’ll have a video going live that is NOT a board game review, but DOES announce something exciting.

So hopefully that’ll cheer up the Monday moods? There’s a lot happening, and that’s nice!

How was everyone’s weekend? Is everyone struggling a bit? What’s the best bit of self-care you’ve got planned for this week? I’m still relying heavily on the discovery that you can stir Biscoff spread into hot milk and make yourself the most biscuity drink ever made. DRINK THE BISCUIT.

On wednesday? You guessed it – it’s a Video Review. Another big one this week! Ohoho – chunky chunky… Keep an eye peeled for my grinning face in your YouTube inbox. Could be a contentious one, capacity for internet fury this time. Friday has the podcast pinging into your ears with some chat about Bullet, and Night of the Hogmen: a preview-module thing of the forthcoming RPG TEETH. It’s my bet that the hogmen are having a quiet night of TV and nibbles.

Finally, over the weekend I personally have plans to try and clean up an old anglepoise lamp and start thinking about sanding down the terrible surfaces in my kitchen floor. Neither of these will be broadcast, but I just thought you might need to know.

What’s everyone else got going ON?

What can you expect from the team this week, on the fabulous 12th anniversary of ‘the beautiful game(s)? On Tuesday’s streamtime, we’re playing a little (big) game called Oath! Matt, Ava and I are going to be dipping into the TTS mod to take the next steps in the rubbish world we’ve created. Ava’s trying her best to bring some nice cards in but it’s a real disaster. Catch that over on our Twitch!

On Wednesday, me, I, Tom (hello) will be reviewing… a game! Expect a very bad costume, lots of ‘expensive’ b-roll and… surprisingly few jokes? It’s been in the works for a while, and is all the worse for it; an over proofed dough of questionable content! Dig in!

Lastly, we’re rounding out the week with some fun, chilled out podtimes. We’ll be talking about the light n breezy Atheneum, the small and relaxing Ohanami and the menacing No Thanks! Quinns also talks extensively about his favourite game of all time on this one – you heard it here first folks – his words, not mine. I swear.

That’s a week! That’s almost too much stuff! Let’s take a quick sense check and make sure that… you’re doing okay, everyone? Wait, no. Uh. How’s it hanging? On this week. What have you been up to this week. Last week. Everybody? Thank you.

Quinns is on review duty this week, but due to a large time accident the game we planned coverage of doesn’t come out until… next year? WHOOPS. Instead, Quinns is going to escape from the review-o-sphere moments before implosion with a game that I despise due to my deeply predictable nature. I’m sure he’ll make it in time, he’s absolutely crushing it these days.

But before that, Matt and I are due for a very small war. We’re playing Blitzkrieg on stream tomorrow – catch that over on our Twitch page, you know the drill. I’m sure it’ll be a chill one; or at least a shade chiller than history’s worst sequel.

And then, at the end of the week, we’re casting the pod(cast) way into space – with chats about credit-scraping alliance-em-up Moonrakers as well as first-person-freezer Cryo! Wowee zowee – those are boardgames!

But before any of that… What have you been up to, everybody?

This away week gave us a chance to playtest so many games that we’re all excessively hyped about how many games, opinions and gags we’ve got to stream, podcast and review right into your lovely faces.

So let’s get started!

This week will kick off on Tuesday evening with a stream of an old favourite. Me, Tom and Matt will be flying into space while all our bits fall off. That’s right, we’re playing a digital version of Galaxy Trucker!

On Wednesday, Tom is inspecting all the fine details of a surprisingly big, little game in our next video review. I’m excited to find out what he’s going to say about this one.

On Friday, we’ve got the first podcast we’ve recorded in person in, well, a very very long time. You can hear me, Tom and Quinns get excited about three new editions of older games that we got to try out. Royal Visit’s card-based tug-of-wars, Mississippi Queen’s slow-mo boat races and Tinner’s Trail’s infuriating Cornish auctions.

What a week! How’s everybody holding up?

My new video review scheduled for last week will now be published this Wednesday. As Tom teased, you should expect plenty of cards, dice and violence, as well as a big ol’ SU&SD Recommends seal.

There will not be a Twitch stream on Tuesday (those should return on the 15th of June) and there will not be a podcast on Friday (the next episode will probably be on the 11th of June).

While this is partially due to life being annoying, mostly these delays are happening because Matt, Tom, Ava and myself are all trundling up to an Airbnb next week for four days of gaming! We’re all bringing as many new games as we can stagger under. It’s gonna be epic. After spending a year with my to-be-played games slumped slovenly in the corner of my office, I couldn’t be more amped to put them through their paces.

Also, this will in fact be the first time all four of us have been in the same room. If you never hear from us again it will probably be because we will have vibed so hard that we fuse into one nine-foot tall board game reviewer and must retreat into the local sewer system to hide from the authorities.

But that’s relatively unlikely. I imagine what will happen instead is team SU&SD will return refreshed, relaxed, and with our burning passion for tabletop comprehensively stoked.

So, what have you lot been playing? Nothing? Everything? Let us know in the comments below!

Tuesday night? Myself and Matt ‘The Lees’ Lees will be going tea-to-tea in Chai: Toe for 2! Wait, no! It’s Chai Tea for Toe! Wait, no! Tea for 2! You can catch that on our Twitch channel, and you can be thankful for that untainted hyperlink after I decided that a portmanteau of Tea and Twitch into “Tweatch” didn’t deserve a regal blue glow. I’m an asset to the team, I promise.

Wednesday? I can only promise that there will be a video review! Expect talk of cards, dice, and violence – all under one roof. Quinns will be delivering a barrage of white-hot content directly into your eyeballs… if you dare!

Friday? Oh boy, it’s a big one. Ava and I are going to be chatting all things Oath in a podtastrophe of opinions and lingo. I’ve only gone and done 4 entire pages of notes for this one, so keen am I to get across my [opinions] on this [adjective] game!

Hoooo boy, what an exciting week of good good content. What’s exciting in your week, everybody?

That’s because Tuesday night I’m going to be on our Twitch channel with Matt and Tom, playing Tiny Turbo Cars from Horrible Guild. This is a recently-kickstarted game from the publishers of King’s Dilemma and Railroad Ink. Tiny Turbo Cars has you fiddling with a sliding puzzle and using it to pre-program the moves of the titularly teensy conveyances as they race around the kitchen floor. It sounds neat! I’m excited to find out how neat.

Wednesday is review day, and Matt is building a colourful edifice of a review for you, which I’m excited for, because I already own it, and it’s a surprisingly full-but-small box. I shall say no more.

Then Friday we’ll be podding our hearts away. Me and Matt are ready to record what I’m tentatively titling the ‘cosycore’ podcast, with a look at some gentle games with nice things in. Gardens and cupboards. Ooooh, lovely (and a bit of a break after last week’s sprawling massivenesses).

So that’s the pint-sized line-up for this week! Any of that float your cosy? What’s the smallest lovely thing you did this weekend? What’s your favourite cupboard?

Tonight you can look forward to an eldritch battle over on our Twitch channel, with Tom and Matt bashing their brains against one another in a live match of Cthulhu Wars: Duel. This is the new, cheaper, 2 player-only edition of Cthulhu Wars, which I covered in a special Christmas review back in 2019. I barely knew Tom back then, but that didn’t stop me from (a) dressing him up as a ghost and (b) making him sprint around outside my building. What a good lad.

Tomorrow our video reviews return with a bang, with Tom covering an early contender of our game of the year. I shall say no more.

Finally, on Friday we’re releasing a podcast that I can’t wait to record- it’s a double feature talking about two very ambitious  games, the shockingly-asymmetric Merchant’s Cove and the shocking-looking Coffee Traders. Although I guess both are games are about being “Stressed traders”, which would make this.. the stressed trader-cast?

Have a lovely week, everyone!

On Tuesday we’re streaming Keystone: North America, a game of developing an ecosystem and the first release from hot new publisher Rose Gauntlet! Then on Friday you can look forward to episode #139 of the podcast, which will be (get ready) a special episode all about manuals. Basically, Matt had a near-death experience laying out the manual for RATS: High Tea at Sea, and will be telling us what he learned as a springboard to discuss manuals in general.

No video review this week, although we do have our next five(!) reviews planned. You can look forward to our video reviews starting up again from Wednesday the 12th of May.

Finally, let’s have a little peek at the games topping the BGG Hotness and see what we think, eh?

1. Evil scientist simulator My Father’s Work tops the hotness this week, with its Kickstarter campaign at a hefty $445,000 and counting! For a closer look you should absolutely check out Tom explaining the game in our AwSHUX preview videos. We’re learning to expect zesty games like this from Renegade Game Studios, who often pair innovative games with very strong art design.
2. Matt Eklund’s Stationfall takes the #2 spot. It’s my first time seeing it and it reminds me of a tabletop Space Station 13? A highly thematic, highly chaotic game of hidden objectives and strong theming. Or maybe you could describe it as Nemesis without the aliens and with more of a sense of humour?
3. Next up is Lost Ruins of Arnak by CGE. Released last year, this game is turning out to have some real staying power! Not only is it still in the hotness, it’s currently listed as BGG’s 7th best family game and 103rd best game of all time.
4. Fourth is Dune: Imperium. Our team was broadly pretty cool on this box, and you can hear why in podcast #127. Like Arnak, this game combines deckbuilding with worker placement, and we felt it was no more and no less than the sum of its parts. (Except Matt, who thought it was not “Bad” but “Good”.)
5. And riding unexpectedly high in the hotness is Vivid Memories by Floodgate Games! Could this be a result of Tom explaining it so masterfully in his AwSHUX preview, and then again on podcast #138? Probably, yes.

The second ever AwSHUX, our free online edition of the SU&SD convention, starts today. There’s no time to waste – hurry over to the official site and start poking around!

It is TEEMING with games, THROBBING with features, and GLISTENS with giveaways. But here are some toplines of what you won’t want to miss:

• Over on our YouTube channel we’ve just this moment released a whole heap of previews of upcoming games, presented by Tom, Matt and myself. These videos represent a whole month of work and we’re releasing them all in one go, because you’re worth it.
• More than 30 hours’ worth of programming will soon start on our Twitch channel- we’ve got panels, gameshows, special guests, presentations galore! You can see the schedule in the above header image.
• But SHUX isn’t just about looking at games, pawing at your monitor like a kitten at a window. This weekend you can play games free on Tabletopia – use the code SHUX2021 to get 7 days of free Gold Access! Here’s how to apply your coupon code.
• Can’t find the game you want on Tabletopia? Try these other options: BGA (free), Sovranti (Gold access free during AwSHUX with code SHUX21), Yucata (free), Boîte à Jeux (free), TTS (buy on steam).
• Can’t find people to play with? We won’t hear of it. You can find friendly folks on the official AwSHUX Discord server!
• Finally (and you can expect to hear a lot more about this on the site in the coming days), we’ve only gone and published a game in collaboration with two friends of the show. RATS: High Tea at Sea is a roll’n’write that you can pay whatever you want for, and is 100% playable over a webcam.

The last time this much board game love and tabletop talent was in one place was… probably the last AwSHUX? And this time the show is even bigger and better? Goodness me. I’m going to stop typing right now and get stuck in.

But this week on the website, things trundle on as usual! Tomorrow we’ll be live-streaming Oriflamme: a game of cunning, malice, and people wearing cloaks. On Wednesday you’ll be graced with a review from Mr Quintin Smith that I cannot personally wait to have a peek at – I suspect it may be a real hot potato! What does that mean, exactly? Honestly I’ve got no idea, but it certainly feels right.

This Friday’s podcast features Tom and Quinns chatting about two games: Cascadia and Nidavellir, and over the weekend I’ve plans to help remove rubble from a garden and potentially bake a dozen chocolate muffins. 2021: it is all go.

Finally, for “a bit of fun” – let’s take a quick peek at the top five items on BGG’s Hotness, and What We Think About That.

1.     Oath is now shipping! Tom (our resident Rootaholic) is on the case. Early impressions suggest it has A Nice Box.
2.     Robinson Crusoe gets a collectors’ edition – checkout Quinns’ near-ancient review here. Has his opinion changed? No. No no no no no.
3.     Cubitos – Alright so this is probably Tom’s fault, isn’t it? Having also played Cubitos a lot, though, I can 100% confirm that this game is a minimum of Tier-3 Hot.
4.     Fjords matches Beth Sobel’s (Wingspan, Calico, Viticulture) beautiful nature art with game design by Franz-Benno Delonge (Container, Manila) and Phil Walker-Harding (Sushi Go!, Bärenpark, Gizmos), sounds like a pretty exciting formula to us. Kickstarter’s now live, so you can expect coverage from us in the far-flung future.
5.     Lost Ruins of Arnak is one we took a look at last AwSHUX if you’d like a quick overview.

And that’s all of the Monday she wrote! What’s your favourite lost ruin?

I’m deeply excited about this week on Shut Up & Sit Down, and I’m here to see if I can make you be the same. This Tuesday, me, Matt and Tom are taking a(n imaginary) trip to the Rockies with a game of Cascadia! This follow up (of sorts) to Calico promises a whole biosphere of tile-laying trickery, so you’ll probably get an intriguing array of grunts from your beloved stream-hosts. We might even be building streams, on stream! How deep does this rabbit-hole go? That depends how many points it’s worth.

On Wednesday Tom has a review for you about a game that is hitting my own doormat sometime this week and I’m SO excited for the review and the game, because it’s probably the game I’ve had the most fun with this whoooole year. All I can tell you is that we’ve been in the company slack discussing the correct number of dice to roll in a game.

Finally, on Friday, we’re going to be digging into two hefty historical games we’ve had time to try out online in the last few weeks. This week’s podcast is about Stroganov, recently departed from Kickstarter (but still available for pre-order) and Anno 1800, currently only available in German, but coming soon to a shore near you. One’s pretty, and the other’s problematic. One’s solid, the other we’re not so sure of. But I’m not going to spoil the conversation, partly because.. well.. we haven’t had it yet!

Wooo. What a week to bring the season in with! How have you been heralding the spring or preparing for autumn, folks?

Listen, I can explain my tardiness. Each limb of Shut Up & Sit Down digitally assembled earlier in the week to chat about what exciting content we’re putting out, and all we had to show for it was a big collective moan. Well, that and the productive decision to not put out a video this week; sliding our schedule back a notch to make sure everything’s looking less exhausted. It’s ‘the year’, what else can we say?

You can still expect a podcast on Friday – Quinns and I are going to have a little ramble about a smattering of solo RPGs that I’ve been playing over the past couple days and weeks. I think it’ll be a lot of fun, so keep your ears open so that one can crawl in and have itself a home.

Normal video service will resume next week – and until then, stay hydrated! xx

On Tuesday we’ll be streaming Trick Shot – a game about slapping, whacking, and slipping around on a big field made of cold. In the real world, it’s called ‘Ice Hockey’, and I think people do it for fun? Thank goodness we’ve got a digital version of a cardboard version of the whole process, it sounds like a real hassle.

A little later in the week, you can treat yourself to a video review, emerging from a mysterious fog of smoke, mirrors, and red herrings. The title has an E in it, and you’re not allowed to guess it this time or I’ll tell the dads!

Lastly, this week’s Frodcast is all about CloudAge. Matt and Quinns have been playing a few games of Pfister’s latest point-a-thon, and will (likely) have some thoughts and feelings about it. Don’t ask me what they think, I haven’t edited it yet!

Have a great week, everyone!

On the website this week we’ve a review from Mr Brewster, who’s currently hurrying away to serve up another of his delightful edits for this Wednesday. I can’t wait. Prior to that, though – we’ll be streaming on Tuesday! Tomorrow night will feature me and Tom having a crack at the co-op cave management simulator Paleo: I had a little try of this one the other day, and it might be a little bit special? Tune in and take a peek to judge for yourself.

Finally, it’s POD-TIME. Tom and Ava join forces to sell you on a variety of crusty and out-of-print beauties that you can play *right now* using digital websites – keep an eye out for that one this Friday!

Oh, and we’ve now managed a miraculous two-month stretch of having the podcast appearing online each and every Friday. Because nobody else in the history of the internet has managed to make a podcast that comes out every week, I’ve been brainstorming some ideas for marketing the podcast’s unique relationship with a fixed day of the week.  If anyone has any better ideas, do let me know – otherwise, “LET’S GET POZZY WITH THE FROZZY!”

What are we hoping for this week? We’re hoping for a stream, a review and a podcast, and you know what, it’s all actually going to happen. (Terms and conditions may apply)

On Tuesday we’re streaming the potion-popping extravaganza that is Quacks of Quedlinberg, and we’re even going to chuck in the currently German-only Alchemists expansion. We promise it won’t be as chaotic as when we tried to do this with Excalibohn. We’ll be slightly more prepared for those explosive potion notions.

Wednesday is review day, and all I am permitted to say is that Matt will be talking about a game that got him so excited he dressed up all fancy, and may have an appearance from the newest, least-living member of the team.

Finally, on Friday we’ve got a lovely little podcast special, with Tom, Quinns and myself having a chat about what we’re planning and dreaming of for our first, perfect game night once all this *gestures vaguely* is a bit less diseasey.

Without wanting to get too serious, what hopes are you hoping right now, folks?

Take this week’s Tuesday stream, for example. Red Cathedral isn’t a beige game, in many ways – just look at that lovely cover! Feast your peepers on that sweet, segmented season board! You’re practically drowning in colour! And yet, your eyes must only drift a little to spy the distinctly sepia edges of the board and stunning tagline; ‘Lead a construction team to build Saint Basil’s Cathedral under the Tsar’s reign’. Now THAT’s what I call Beige Week.

What about this week’s video review? Well, my clues so far have led you people to guess the game with worrying accuracy – so I’ll let this week’s theme do all the talking. How’s that for a clue!? It’ll be like finding hay in a haystack.

Finally, in podtown; a sienna subversion to our tripartite of tan. On Friday, we’re going to have ourselves a lovely chat about Faiyum – the most technicolour beige game ever to exist – not just in its actual palette (it’s actually quite colourful!) but also in mechanics. So it’s not really beige at all; and maybe that’s what’s so thrilling about beige week.

But one question remains! What have you been up to, everybody? 

But while I can’t offer you snow, this week I can offer you a pile of fresh, cool, crunchy board games.

On Tuesday Matt and Tom will be streaming what at least some people are calling the game of 2020, Beyond the Sun. Would you like to see what the fuss is about? Was the discussion on podcast #124 not enough for you? Or are you just monstrously impatient for our video review, which will only be published when the game is back in stock? If you answered “Yes”, “No,” and “That’s right”, you won’t want to miss this one.

On Wednesday Tom will be publishing a video review of one of board gaming’s stone cold classics, a game that is, in fact, older than he is. But not much older. I can say no more.

And then Friday will see the emergence of the very 130th Shut Up & Sit Down podcast. Remember how episode #119 was called “The Big Reiner Beefcast”, in which we all argued about legendary designer Reiner Knizia? We’re tentatively calling episode #130 “The Big Reiner Lovecast”. Look forward to further chat about My City, The Quest for El Dorado, and more besides.

What’s to be found in this unhinged time-limbo? I’ve just caught a glimpse of the video  from Quinns that we’ll be publishing on Wednesday, a review of an excellent game whose title can be sung to the tune of the very best ‘Track 9’ on my 3rd favourite Parquet Courts record? Have fun decoding that one, SUCKERS. We’re not sharing our video secrets THAT easily.

And what’s that? In the distance? A crowd of lost souls chanting ‘RAISE’? ‘YOUR’? ‘LAWYERS’? The people have demanded it, and we must provide it  – on Tuesday we’ll have a full-length technicolour stream of legal simulation Lawyer Up. It’ll be confusing and amusing! I’m excited to play it, and equally scared that I have to teach it.

Last, but not least, please feel free to take a seat inside the Podcastle this Friday for an exhaustive (exhausting?) ramble about Carnegie – a game that contains nary a trace of Union-Busting. Just like the man himself would have wanted.

Whew. That’s ‘this week’ over here sorted. I’m knackered already.

This week is the last week in January, objectively the worst month of the year, and we’re nearly through it! Well done folks, we did it together. Try not to look directly into the eyes of February, a month that would technically be worse if it wasn’t a whole three days shorter.

How are we going to get you through the final Jan-stretch? Well, on Tuesday, we’re going to be streaming our porkiest stream yet, a game of City of the Big Shoulders, an economic cube pushing game with some of the stock market shenanigans of the baffling board game sub-genre known as 18xx. I have no idea how it works so I’m likely going to be thrashed by Matt and Tom, what a treat!

Wednesday is review day, and I’m permitted to tell you that it’s likely to be the wettest review of the year so far. Matt will be serving up a platter of opinions that shouldn’t actually make you wet, but you do you.

Finally, we’ll wrap up the week with our traditional podcast, our tentpole discussion this week is Vampire: The Masquerade – Vendetta, a game we tried on stream and I quite liked but was worried it might be a little unbalanced. What will Quinns, Matt and Tom think? I’ll find out when I start editing the podbeast, but you’ll have to wait until Friday. What lovely bit of anticipation for you. Aren’t you lucky!

So everybody, tell me, what’s been getting you through the chilliest, toughest time of the year? Or if you’re in the southern hemisphere, what can you tell me about summer? Is it really real?

This week will kick off properly tomorrow: in reaction to last friday’s podcast celebrating the work of Uwe Rosenberg, we’re hopping onto Twitch to play a game of Excalibohn: the delightfully arthurian-themed twist on the bean-based card game Bohnanza. If you’re in the mood for chilling with us while we’re undoubtedly silly, tune in. On Wednesday you can look forward to a video from Tom that features more tiny games than you can wobble a huge stick at, before finally this Friday you can look forward to an episode of the podcast that’s entirely about Dune Imperium. I believe the podcast is tentatively titled “Matt Lees vs The People”, but I refuse to spill the beans any further than that.

That’s double-beans so far, so let’s go for the triple: what kind of beans are your favourite beans?

Today, with a heavy heart I must announce that after many years of faithful service, the Games News is being retired. This will be sad news for its regular readers, but the Games News demanded a tremendous amount of work from our team while outright refusing – and you’ve got to hand it to the ol’ Games News here – to ever grow in popularity.

So this year, instead of doing the Monday news our team will be redoubling its efforts to make more of the stuff you like, as well as taking the time to come up with brand new features. Instead, on Monday we’re going to be doing these nifty little posts checking in with our community and teasing what we’ve got coming up that week.

For example: On Tuesday of this week (tomorrow!) head over to our Twitch page to watch us play the new and pleasingly mauve-coloured card game Vampire: The Masquerade – Vendetta. On Wednesday I’ll be presenting our first video review of the year, a eurogame that Shut Up & Sit Down donors will already have heard me squeaking about in our behind-the-scenes newsletter. Then on Friday you can look forward to podcast #126, which was a LOT of fun to record- Tom, Ava and myself discussed the new Uwe Rosenberg game Hallertau, and then spent the whole rest of the podcast discussing which Rosenberg games Tom should play.

But enough about us! What did you get up to this weekend, everybody?

Ava: One of those crimes definitely seems worse than the other.

Tom: How about stealing bricks from toddlers and pelting old people with lollipops? Either way, the news has been thoroughly cancelled and we’re going to have to manage this week without it. I hope you’ve brought all your best ‘News?’ to the table.

Ava: Erm. We’ll see?

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter, and that means new game announcements are slowing down and I’m starting to run out of things to cover.

Thankfully it also means that it’s a great time to launch a sparkly game box like Winter Queen, an abstract game that promises a load of crystal-shuffling shenanigans.

Tom: The setup in Winter Queen is pretty straightforward – you can place crystals on a board to get spellbooks, place crystals in those spellbooks to prime them, and then activate those spellbooks to score specific crystal layouts on the main board. It’s a crystal and spellbooks ouroboros of choices! Decisions! Winter! Gems!

The whole gem-scoring system is wrinkled by the ability to take those pretty shiners off the board when you score, disrupting plans and spannering the works; but following in most abstracts, understanding the fun is like explaining circular gemstone to medium square.

You know what? I’ll be medium square with you, reader. When faced with the prospect of writing anything about a game, my brain immediately starts shuffling for jokes by rearranging letters. The best I’ve got here is ‘Quinter Ween’ a game about the band Ween being cloned once and then half cloned again. It’d be a territory control deal where two rival Weens fight for musical dominance in the nineties indie scene while a 5th, superior Ur-Ween adjudicates proceedings with their fully integrated Weenbrain. Then you flip the board to play the noughties, with your success in the first round determining whether you get your own label or have to keep relying on Elektra to fund your subsequent ‘bad records’. There’s obviously a fishing minigame.

Ava: This could be a whole new way of reviewing games. Which do you reckon is going to be better, Quinter Ween or Winter Queen?

Tom: I’m sure our readers feel suitably informed to make a decision after reading such rigorous journalism.

Ava: I feel a bit awkward talking about Alhambra being on kickstarter for like, the second time this year? I feel bad for anyone who jumped on the Alhambra Roll and Write to get themselves a load of Alhambra stuff, when now there’s another big pile of boxes you can get your hands on.

That said, I quite like Alhambra. It’s a solid but fusty tile laying game of collecting majorities in your own little palace. It’s got a really nice currency system that means it’s hard to judge what stuff costs, and collecting the right coinage is more important than collecting lots. It’s got one of my favourite rules to teach, that ‘just like in real life, if you pay with correct change, you get an extra turn’. It’s a little bit dry, and it’s terrible at high player counts, but if you fancy a nice little game covered with a million inconsistently-necessary appendages, maybe this is the big box for you? You can give the game a try on board game arena, which at least means you won’t be going in completely unaware.

Tom: Honestly, it’s a bit of a slow news week. I think the newspipes might be starting to freeze up for the winter.

Ava: Port Royal getting a new big box edition isn’t really news either. There’s two reasons I’m linking though, firstly, it’s a solid push your luck game with a nice central choice and a load of interesting efficiency wrinkles and several expansions. Secondly, there’s a small chance the new edition is happening entirely because Quinns is on the record as really not liking Klemens Franz’s artwork.

The new big box of the small but swashbuckling game will include all the many expansions, and a totally new set of artwork, except for the iconography, which will remain the same so you don’t have to relearn a new set of symbols if you’ve played the old ones. As the owner of a single ‘expandalone’ box, that wasn’t really enough of the game to stand alone, I may well jump on this, as I have some fond memories of Port Royalling at conventions and in a Glasgow pub.

Tom: Continuing in the slow news theme, this is absolutely not news as it happened MULTIPLE weeks ago – but it’s NEWS TO ME so I thought I’d jump in to include it. As I ventured over to BGA to set up a game of Alhambra (fueled by the excitement of the above news item) I found out that the folks running the site are adding a new game into the database on every day of December ? That’s wild! Isn’t it? A new game every day! I think it’s wild. Sorry, carry on with the news.

Ava: I know! It’s a lot of games. I found myself looking up the rules for ‘Solo Whist’, which I regret to inform you is a four player game, although it does have the weird wrinkle of dealing cards (sometimes intentionally not shuffled to create weird bundles) and then having you bid to decide what game you’ll be playing, varying from a two v two team game to various three versus one variants, including one where one player has to try and lose every trick, despite playing with an open hand. Ridiculous, and the betting rules sound vicious.

Ava: Some nice newsy news is that Omari Akil has been brought in as the new president of the Indie Game Developer Network, who support a range of smaller publishers and developers of table top thingummies. They offer scholarships, awards, mentoring and coaching and with a particular focus on diversity in the industry.

I’m pretty excited to see Omari driving that forward, as we’ve already seen he’s a man that gets things done. I’d not heard of the IGDN until he tweeted about it, but it sounds like a good project, and I’m already bookmarking and following a load of extra people as a result. Lovely.

Ava: Omari also drops a page or two into The Ultimate Micro-RPG book, a collection of tiny tabletop story games that aims to make it super easy to get playing. Edited by James D’Amato, this comes close to being exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for in RPGs these days. Simple, easy-to-start stories that I can just put in front of people and get playing. Forty is a lot of games! There’s one about being teenage crows. The book is available now in the US, and should be heading further afield soon hopefully.

Tom: My sluggish jokebrain immediately started scrambling for ways to connect Counting Crows to the Teenage Crow RPG, but I just got completely lost reading the lyrics to ‘Mr Jones’. Have you read the lyrics to that song? It’s -OW!

Ava: ‘Ow?’ What happened? Did you get hit by a brick or something?

Tom: Lock up your oldies, the news has escaped.

Ava: Ooh I love these. I head North.

Tom: Turn to page 1333. There is no news to the North, you have been eaten.

Ava: Oh wait, yes. I hate these. Let’s just news some news.

Ava: Okay. There’s a a surfeit of nostalgic RPGs and boardgames latching onto the 80s teen-horror stylings of Stranger Things and that ilk. I could just and move on from this one, but for one thing! My most particular weakness is a ridiculous name and a bisexual colour scheme.

The Snallygaster Situation is coming soon, and promises a co-operative mystery-machine in the world of Renegade’s ‘Kids on Bikes’ RPG system. Kids on Bikes wins a point for the most communicative three syllables in the role-playing scene. In the Snallygasting spinoff, one player will play ‘the lost kid’ (sound familiar), offering a series of clues to the rest of the team, but facing tough trade-offs between giving the best clue and the other side of the card, which controls and the monsters and cops move around the board. Once the team is reunited, they join forces to face down the titular snallygaster, or some other monster with a less delightful name.

Tom: ‘The Suffocating Nature of One’s Hometown’ or ‘Being a Teenager’?

Ava: Too real, too early.

Look, I know I’m not supposed to cover games which only have a box shot, but LOOK AT THAT BOX. The marketing, titling and theming game here is all strong enough to win a slot in the news. Well done those people.

Tom: All this has made me realise I do fancy a game where you get to play as exasperated law enforcement trying your best to hoik oiks out of storm drains.

Ava: Wait! Tom, The Snallygaster is a real thing? Well. A real folkloric thing. I just thought my spellcheck was malfunctioning. What a world!

Tom: It is what ate you on page 1333, after all.

Ava: Factions Battlegrounds has one of the most generic names I’ve ever come across, but its card based combat and bright, chunky art do make it stand out. That leaves us with a fancy little tactical battler built with, as it assures us, no dice, no decks, just PURE DECISIONS. It looks a little like Summoner Wars, with cards placed onto a grid to move and attack each other, but it adds a terrain based set up which should add a few more tactical and strategic offerings. The game is made by people of colour, with a specific mission to improve representation, which is exactly what we like to hear. There’s a nice little interview over on Blerd, if you’re interested in that side of things.. If you’re into it, jump on it quick, as it closes in three days.

Tom: I’m still hanging onto the ‘no dice or decks; only decisions’ situation here. I like to think that eventually board gamers will reach the peak of their powers when they exist purely in the imaginative space; like the people that were playing entire games of chess in the Twitch chat during AwSHUX. Be free of component restraints and project the game of your dreams into the hypnospace.

Ava: Free your mind and the board will follow.

I’m always thanking W Eric Martin for his round-ups of the Tokyo Game Market and similar Japanese events. Unfortunately, a lot of the games are either never going to get a worldwide release, or take a year or two to land. It’s a bit unsatisfying. Well maybe sometimes it isn’t?

Aqua Garden is inspired by Heaven and Ale, but swaps monks for fish, with no mention of monkfish. Its kickstarter bait consists of a lovely selection of printed wooden fish tokens that are just absolutely gorgeous. The game itself is what I think of as a ‘mopping-up rondel’ mechanic, where whoever is last on the round thing gets to go next, so you can jump ahead to make sure you get exactly what you need, but whoever is last gets to hoover up everyone else’s leavings. Players will be acquiring fish to display in their own little aquariums, and the copywriting in the ‘story’ is both lovely and ridiculous.

Ooh, I’m always a little reticent to link to a kickstarter for background material for RPGs, as it seems a little bit adrift from the Shut Up and Sit Down wheelhouse, but my word, do I love a mountain.

A packet of Particular peaks promises three different fantastical mountains to explore in the role playing system of your choice. That’s pretty damn charming if you ask me..

Tom: ‘TIS charming! I really appreciate things like this existing, if just for the thought of someone running a roleplaying campaign with deliriously detailed dream sequences and bog-standard ‘everything else’ sequences. Who could blame them, though? The art in this is bloody stunning and has set my imagination wild immediately, as intended.

Ava: Urgh! I’ve never seen a bit of news make me wince so hard.

Asmadi Games have potentially lost an entire container full of Goodest Puppers, their latest kickstarter. You can see Chris Cieslik, Asmadi’s big boss, laughing through gritted teeth in his first update, and there is a second update assuring that a new print run has already started just in case, but my word is that a tough bit of news. I got to check maritime news for the first time in my games news career, and thankfully, nobody was injured in the enormous storm, but 1800 containers are now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Hopefully Asmadi can pull through this, it sounds like they’ve got a plan, but I’m sure it’s unsettled everyone. Good luck them games, puppers and businesses.

I’ve been sitting on this Tom Russell interview for a few weeks, and I think now’s the time. She’s a really interesting designer and half of the team running Hollandspiele, a company I absolutely want to learn more about.

Tom: Me too . I feel sort of guilty that the only games of hers I’ve played are Irish Gauge and Northern Pacific – both on the lightest end of the complexity scale offered – and there’s so much more to dig into, in the designing and publishing department. Erin Escabedo’s Meltwater: A Game Of Tactical Starvation? Sounds too grim to be true, but I do certainly want to sit down to it one day.

Ava: Tom Russel’s thoughts on wars and trains are fascinating. Though I’m also just tickled at how those are the two main themes of her work. We covered her Field of Cloth and Gold in these news pages though, and that was all about hosting a (very specific) party. Remind me to see if we can snag a copy of that at some point.

Tom: To the snagmobile!

Ava: There is no snag to the North. You have been eaten.

Ava: If you read that in any other way than exactly how it sounds in your head then it all just falls apart.

Tom: K-I-L-L-J-O-Y! Ava you’re so nasty, why? I just want to make a rhyme! Something else that rhymes with rhyme! GoOOoOoo A WAY!

Ava, frowning and ignoring Tom: Oh my word look at the donkeys!

Coffee Traders is coming next year from Capstone Games, and it keeps on boasting about having over 650 components. This looks like a sprawling beast of a game, in the vein of Capstone’s own Arkwright. What I mean is it looks like someone spilled a hessian sackful of spreadsheets all over your table. The game promises economics, fair trade, and piggy-backing on the actions of your competitors, and I’m excited for the lovely donkeys and the lovely wooden coffee beans.

Tom: I must say that this has a contestant for ‘oddly specific board game reward track of the year’ in the ‘Arabica Track’? Looking at the photos for this one is reminding me more of Cooper Island than anything else – in that it’s all very pretty and all very buried in iconography. To be honest, I’ll spend time in literally any board game right now, spreadsheet or not, just to have my precious physical components back. Aaah. This year.. It’s still happening…

Ava: Got a little one-two punch here of a game that’s not quite ready for kickstarter yet, followed by a game where we just missed the kickstarter.

Darwin’s Journey is hitting the crowdfunds in the new year, but already has a pretty full hype-wagon website, and it looks kinda cute. Players will be placing workers in Darwin’s diary to send them to museums and islands to learn more about the natural world and the theory of evolution. The quirk in the formula is that your workers will be learning as they go, allowing them to take increasingly elaborate actions, provided they’ve had the right sort of practice. The end result is collecting specimens for museums and multiplying that by your Theory of Evolution track, all while balancing money and evolution points, because board games.

Tom: I definitely read the ‘learning as they go’ part as ‘achieving sentience’ and have been busy chasing that spiral down as far as it’ll go.

Ava: …Where does it go?

Tom: I hear ‘Concordia Silk Piece’ has a major role in Toy Story 5.

Ava: Don’t. I’m genuinely horrified at the thought of the hundred tiny donkeys trapped in the darkness of my Caverna box, screaming for someone to let them out the second I leave the room.

Tom: Meanwhile, in late news…

Ava: Crescent City Cargo is Spielworxx’s follow up to Captains of the Gulf. Both of them were on kickstarter for a while, but are still open for late pledge business. They’re getting a mention because Captains of the Gulf was something Matt and Quinns had a big bundle of opinions on, and Crescent City Cargo looks like a lovely, intricate boat-pusher. Players will be running the docks in New Orleans: loading goods, upgrading buildings and doing all those traditional dockside economic shenanigans, like ‘building an office’ and ‘taking a break’. You need those tasty little naps because you’re managing the morale of your workforce, which is spent every time they have to do actual work.

I’m considering pursuing a rogue strategy of spending the entire game napping, in the hopes of making my workforce so content that we destroy the engine of capitalism, and the social norms which require ‘coins’ to succeed.

Tom: That doesn’t sound very boardgames. My strategy will be to adequately balance office space and workforce to enable maximum productivity per square foot so that I can profit and also be a big winner.

Ava: Ah, yes. Board games.

Ava: Welcome to P-ZONE! The Poppinguppingest Zone for your miniature Ps.

Tom: Ava, Ava. That’s just an interesting logotype, it’s called Upzone.

Ava: What? Why are we even covering this?

Tom: Upzone is a new system of pop-up scenery for quickly setting up terrain for your miniature wargames and role playing games. Like most miniatures terrain kickstarters, it looks fancy, costs a lot of money, and I don’t think we’re the target market for it. We’re quite clearly only covering it because Ava misread the logo and started giggling. We’re very sorry. We’ll get back to work as soon as Ava’s sides can be reattached.

I’m tempted to say more here, but the more I say the more I’ll start being mean; so maybe we just relish P-Zone while it’s here, and then move swiftly on. Like a noughties boy-band. They’ve got the name down pat, at least.

Ava: Let’s move out of the P-Zone before our socks get wet.

I’ve had a run recently of seeing games hit release that I wish I’d covered in the news because they look shiny and interesting. Unfortunately, it’s a bit late to do so when they’ve already hit the shelves. Maybe I’m bad at the news! There is however a sneaky way to give me a chance to save some face, and that’s when I can link to a design diary.

Merv: Heart of the Silk Road is a game of trading and collecting and a gorgeous cover from the lovely Osprey Games. It’s got the look of Vital Lacerda’s sprawling mass of options and board sections. Designer Fabio Lopiano actually started out researching cities for a regular city building game. He then stumbled upon Merv, a desert city with a perfectly square footprint, that later got besieged and wiped off the map. It sounded like fertile ground for gaming, and he got the project underway. You can read more about this gorgeous looking box from Osprey Games on boardgamegeek.

Ava: Just dropping this here because I know Tom streamed this recently with Matt and might have some reckons about Whistle Mountain, and be curious about this design diary.

Tom: A RECKON FOR YOU: I think Whistle Mountain is quietly pretty great, but I’m at the stage now with digital board games where the thought of playing them in person is making me more melancholy than the joy of the actual playing. Whistle Mountain did some good work in jogging my brain out of that rut, though, as I’m keen to drop more unfortunate workers into whirlpools in person asap. I’m going to read this one on my lunch break.

Ava: Brilliant. NAP TIME!

Tom: I don’t think i can handle this.

Ava: It’s just jelly Tom. It’s all just jelly.

Tom: And news, right?

Ava: Yeah, sure, you can call it that if you want!

Oh my word, it’s award season again!

The Pearple’s Choice is currently open for nominations in the unofficial, but still lovely, Shut Up & Sit Down forums. I’m really glad I’ve got an obvious excuse to highlight the forum and hopefully take more of a dip in myself. These are some wonderful awards voted for by the loveliest community in gamesing.

I’m glad to see the return of “The Erik Tengblad award for a game that you played this year but came out earlier”, if just because it reminds me of the lovely and horrible licorice pepper sweets Erik used to feed me annually. I got a bit tearful seeing the MinuteWalt award for best socially distanced game. I’m also super curious what people will vote for in the pillbox award for the game you’re most excited to play when you can get enough people in your house.

It’s nomination time until 14 December, after which voting will run to 11 January with the winners announced in the new year. I’m personally particularly excited to get to take part in the online vote and (hopefully) chat, but then maybe get to appear in the podcast and have additional opinions.

Honestly though, I think it’s really lovely that there’s this entirely volunteer run award show running in the background. So many thanks to everybody running it, nominating, voting and generally sharing their passion for games.

Tom: In further ‘cool awards’ news, a jam-packed board of industry vets have banded together to create ‘The Zenobia Award’ – a game design contest that’s laser-focused on bringing designers from marginalised groups into the historical games space with a cash prize, but perhaps more importantly, a mentorship from the design heavyweights behind it.

Perhaps the most important thing is that it’s not an award where everyone applies and then one person wins and it’s over. Promising applicants are selected and paired with a mentor early on, who will then develop ideas in collaboration before a de facto ‘winner’ is chosen some time in 2021. I’m really excited to see who gets brought on, and what ends up being produced as the cogs of design turn.

Ava: I think historical gaming is one of the places that could really do with better representation and different perspectives, so I’m really excited to see what comes of this. I love historical games for shining lights on periods I could never have gotten interested in any other way, but it’s no secret that the perspectives offered are often through narrow lenses. Anything that gives me a chance to dive into a piece of history from an entirely new angle sounds wonderful to me. I’m going to be keeping a close eye on what comes out of this mentoring process.

Ava: Maybe let’s look at some actual games.

Village War: The Calamity is a Nigerian boardgame about the history and mythology of the Igbo, designed by Kenechukwu Ogbuagu. The art looks striking, and its boardgamegeek description pitches it as a card-drafting, resource management spirit war game (I am so up for spirit war being the new hot genre).

Players will be choosing from an initial hand of ten cards which warriors will be going to their village to be targeted by your opponents, and which will be staying in hand to get aggressive. Cards are played back and forth to defend and attack, until someone has won the war and/or claimed the most resources. Players are also able to use artifacts and tributes to disrupt the back and forth and take special actions.

Tom: There’s quite a lot of war going all over the place in that cover art! I hope the game delivers in-depth systems for every one of the natural disasters, creatures and buff dudes depicted.

Ava: Well this looks thoroughly bizarre, and completely unlike the usual historic fare I associate with Academy games.

Reality Shift features sci-fi style lazer-cycle maze-racing across a board made up of chunky magnetic plastic cubes that can be reoriented and moved around during the game. This means you’ll be racing on the sides of cubes, getting squashed by cubes and reconfiguring the race course to bring the finish cube closer. It looks ridiculous. And very cubey.

Tom: The higher Kickstarter pledge levels here are just multiple (occasionally deluxe) copies of the game, so that you can build an 18-cube Reality Shift race-track that extends into the heart of the sun. Which y’know. Might… be… fun?

This looks a tiny bit like ‘Ctrl’ – partly because they’ve both got big ol’ cubes, but mostly because they’re both built out of gimmick and potential. The only way I can envisage Reality Shift practically working in most people’s human rooms would be to seat it atop a turntable so the whole thing could actually be visible. Add that to some bog standard roll-and-move with card powers to extend your reach, and it could just be a big magnetic crapshoot.

That said, Academy Games have a history of making solid and interesting dice-chuckers, so maybe it’ll be okay.

Ava: Social deduction medieval alchemical biology? Sure, why not.

Four Humours is a game of unseen information and hopefully working together or outwitting your opponents by placing the right pieces in the right places.

Players are medieval pharmacists, prescribing potions to various characters on cards associated with particular locations on a map. Each person has a range of slots to fill with the humours of your choice, so you secretly place potions in them. There’s a hierarchy of humours dictating who wins with which combos, made up of the pieces placed by you AND your opponents. Each card is a different take on the Prisoner’s Dilemma, played over and again, in an attempt to race to meet specific objectives.

It’s one of those things that could be nice and fluffy or ruthlessly complicated, and I honestly can’t tell which from this angle.

Tom: I adore the art style for this one, and it does do a lot of work in making the game look fluffy and gentle – but I bet it’s a tiny bit brutal? It’s the kind of game I can imagine Matt being really good at in a way that makes me want to not talk to him ever again afterwards? I’ve got a lot of time for ‘Routes on a Map’ games and the collision between that and cold hard distrust has me right intrigued.

Ava: And finally, in what I’m thinking of as the second movie in an odd-couple buddy road trip series, Quinns has guested on a Dice Tower top ten! If you want an hour and a half of him gently ribbing (and being ribbed by) Zee and Tom of that parish, you’ve got a treat in store. They’ll be picking out their top 10 unique games, which means it’s actually like a top thirty of uniquingest games?

Given the surprising loveliness of the AwSHUX session where Quinns and Tom beasted each over about the games they disagreed on the most, I’m expecting this to be an enjoyable watch.

Ava: It’s 11am on a Monday. Where is this going?

Tom: We’ve done the heavy lifting here, they can put the pieces together this time. Let’s crack on-

Ava: -WITH THE GAMES BLUES!!

Ava: OhMyGOSH there’s just so much over on the boardgamegeek blog pouring out of the Tokyo Game Market. A lot of this is stuff that may not see a European or American release, but there’s so many lovely things that I have to link you to three, separate, round-ups of all the best Japanese games.

The one I’m most curious about is Hey Yo!, a version of Five Lines, which has players slamming down cards in rhythm, creating something like a musical stave, glistening with notation in different colours and symbols. Once all the cards are laid out, only then do you get to start running pieces along the lines, interacting with the notation to score points and build combos. High scores rely on high collaboration, and spotting when someone’s made a mistake and whether or not you can fix it. This one is from Oink, so will hopefully see a wider distribution, and features two decks, so that instead of just playing co-operatively, you can double the player count and play two rival games. This is so nice! It includes a little music device to play with, but you can also just put on your own tunes and play with those beats instead. I’ve only just realised how much I want to see more rhythm games on the tabletop, because my word, is that a great way to add the time pressure to decision-making that makes mistakes inevitable and hilarious.

Tom: If that doesn’t float your boat then don’t worry, there are a couple more exciting bits and bobs to peruse. Nessie’s True Identity has your mates excitedly yelling nouns that could be the name of an ancient sea-beast, and comes with my new favourite game component ever – a series of plastic letters spelling out ‘WHAT?’.

Meanwhile, Yakatabune is a little card-driven-two-player box where you play as rival pyrotechnicians trying to impress nearby houseboats with many a colourful display. In a nutshell; it’s kind of like Schotten Totten but with explosives! In a tortoiseshell; it’s like Schotten Totten but playing the cards will give your opponent ways of manipulating the cards once they’ve been placed down, and secret ‘program cards’ will let you combo bonus actions together and GOSH it all sounds rather dizzying but EXCITING.

Ava: This isn’t really news but I’m so very excited!

There’s a new Tiefsee edition of The Crew on the way. We all know that Tiefsee is german for Teeth See, so this edition is presumably about the Pope of Teeth, so I’m really not sure why there’s a deep sea theme on the cover. I guess that’s where the holy-father of dentistry lives. I still think The Crew is the best trick taking game I’ve ever seen, and I’ve developed an increasing passion for taking tricks over the last few years, so I’m as hyped up as a deep sea diver who’s just found Kate Winslet’s necklace.

Tom: It really is very good – and I only managed to get up to mission 15 of the 50-strong booklet that guides you through the game’s perfectly pitched difficulty curve. This new box is completely standalone, so I’m keen to see if they double down on the missions that are a little unusual, or try to perfect perfection in just being a ferociously slick trick taker.

Ava: Burncycle sounds like a rhythmic pain, but sadly isn’t a rhythm game. Actually, is it? I can’t make head or tail of this kickstarter. THOMAS! Get out your kickstarter calipers and get the measure of this.

Tom: Yes, Chef!

Tom: BURNCYCLE from Chip Theory has you and a smattering of robot pals doing missions in facilities to complete, you guessed it, objectives! The main board is a sort of a dungeon-crawly map littered with chip theory’s signature… poker tokens? Risk disks? Most of the action seems to take place on your personal player boards, covered in your robot’s spicy abilities, and a ‘network map’ that shows what flavour of ‘science fiction’ corporation you’re facing off against this time. There’s a neat mechanic here where you move pieces around this network map each turn, giving bonuses to possible abilities taken on the main board – a little planning-and-efficiency minigame that makes your dungeon crawl more of a dungeon jog.

I’m explaining this in possibly the driest way possible – but in truth it’s the missions, options and emergent decision making that might make this one sing. I do hear lots of people making GoodNoise about Too Many Bones – but maybe that escapes being described in a dry fashion because you can technically play it in the bath. It sounds fun! It’s got a good name! This one doesn’t have as good a name so maybe it’s not as good? Thank you.

Ava: I’m a sucker for a clever design hack. Top tip for people thinking about running a kickstarter is to do some really clever, silly thing as part of your campaign.

Slugblaster is a role-playing game by Mikey Hamm, on kickstarter with the support of Rowan, Rook and Decard, who brought us Spire, Heart and all those ridiculous one page RPGs. It’s a punky retro sci-fi game about hoverboarding kids that kill monsters with home-made weapons. The tagline is ‘kickflip over a quantum centipede’, which will likely tell you everything you need to know. It’s built on Blades in the Dark and has certainly figured out how to nail a very particular aesthetic.

Ava: What warranted its inclusion in the news, I hear you cry?

Tom: What warranted its inclusion in the news?

Ava: Be quiet, Tom. The deal-clincher for me was that the deluxe edition comes in a pizza box. This will have notes and tables and rules printed on the interior, so you can use it as a DM screen while playing. That’s just brilliant, silly, deeply on brand and I love it.

Ava: Elsewhere on kickstarter Jacob Fryxelius’ next game is crowdfunding now, and I’m curious what ‘Mr Terraforming Mars’ is up to next.

Star Scrappers: Orbital looks a little bit softer on the sci-fi spectrum. It combines engine building and worker placement, and the elaborate card-based systems appear to be all present and correct. I also completely missed the core selling point on my first pass, which is that you’re building a space station with a load of interlinked cards with different abilities. It looks a little like Galaxy Trucker, but with a thick slathering of powerful card combos. I have a lot of faith in Jacob’s ability to build a densely intertwined deck of cards, so this could definitely be one to watch.

Tom: Yespleasethankyou. Anything that has even the faintest whiff of ‘computervideogame’ Offworld Trading Company about it makes me quite pleased – It is, after all, a known fact that when business meets space you get: good. Stocks in zero gravity! Quarterly meetings in orbit! The possibilities are endless. I’m glad the trailer placed some emphasis on the fact that sabotage will play some part in this box – as there’s nothing sweeter than the feeling of disrupting a player’s perfectly-oiled engine with a sprinkling of health and safety violations.

Ava: Ooooh. It’s an Art Attack. Which I realise is a reference only Brits of a certain age will remotely understand.

Katia Howatson has an artists diary up on boardgamegeek in which she talks about her art, her instagram, her recent calendar kickstarter, and just shares a load of lovely mosaics made with board game pieces. It’s exactly the sort of clever idea you wish you’d come up with, executed so immaculately that you don’t get jealous. What a lovely thing.

Ava: No. Tom. Don’t do it.

Tom: … The Games… Hues?

Ava: There aren’t enough sighs in the world. There’s a short report on Digital Spiel, the un-physical version of what would normally be Europe’s biggest games convention/market/noisy-warehouse. The headline figures are Tabletopia doubling its user base, 148,000 people checking out the website, and 400 companies from 41 different countries showing off their bits.

Matt: ALTHOUGH I feel I’d be remiss not to mention that little old AwSHUX was just a week before Essen, and considering it was a tiny thing we’ve heard Behind The Scenes that it had a pretty remarkable impact across the board! Some of those Essen Kudos-Coins are ours, basically, Ava – and I’ll fight to the death for a handful of those beauties. Quick, say something positive about somebody else before I crush us all beneath the weight of my ego.

Ava: OK! So it wouldn’t be fair to continue this week without shining a light on the superb work of the boardgamegeek news blog – they’ve really been putting everyone else to shame when it comes to sifting through this year’s conventions for new info.

Ava: Dorehami games keep cropping up in these pages, thanks to Mr Martin, who’s done a little round-up of games that would’ve been at Spiel from Iran.

Gendarmery from RealityGame has you cataloguing evidence against an array of suspects, and doing so with a little tower. It’s a game of deduction, with arrows functioning as clues to the identities of various suspects. You’ve got to try and pull together a hand of cards that points to just one suspect, without accidentally wasting the Chief’s time by matching two different people. Basically it’s another one of those policing deduction games that make it absolutely clear that a police’s job is to competently frame someone.

Tom: I love that the tower you referred to earlier isn’t just an ‘abstract tower piece’, but in fact resembles a kind of open-air filing cabinet? And one of the main actions in the game is just ‘archiving’ cards directly into said cabinet – plummeting them into a bureaucratic void from which they can never return? That’s the kind of stuffy, office-core thematic nonsense that I can seriously get behind – and is something we’ve seen super-nailed in the physical edition of AwSHUX favourite ‘Inhuman Conditions’ (incidentally also a morally gloomy suspect-appraising-sim).

Ava: The Tokyo Game Market is live streaming next weekend, and will presumably need you to know Japanese to get involved. Boardgamegeek are as ever doing a lovely job of picking out highlights, including a cute tile laying game.

Sheep and Garden has players laying tiles in a classic landscape building style. Players are building a map that will hopefully fill their own objectives, but at more than two players you have one objective of your own, and you share a second and third with each of your neighbours – meaning someone else will be helping you out! That’s a lovely little touch. Just a sweet bit of collaborative mischief to wrinkle up something simple.

Tom: This looks like a slightly better version of game I played ages ago called ‘Wooly Wars’ – which took the tile-laying core of Carcassonne, but each player had a secret colour that they alone wanted to emerge victorious. It was wrinkled with shotgun-toting hunters and ravenous wolves to snarf up sheep, but ultimately felt like everyone just knew what colour everyone else was going, for pretty much instantly? It was good! Not great, but good. And this looks good too! And it has sheep. But will it be great? Maybe. Those cooperative objectives do seem cool. But I don’t know! I haven’t played it yet. And I’m not a psychic. Or good at my job. But I do like sheep!

Ava: Expert reporting as always, Thomas.

Ava: Meanwhile, in ‘expert’ reporting, please can someone find me more information about the spoon bending game?

It’s called Uri Geller, and has players attempting to be spoon bending psychics. The trick is not getting caught out by skeptics as a mere illusionist. I have no idea how bendy the actual spoons are but that box is gorgeous and it’s just got a load of spoons and bags in. This might be the most excited I’ve ever been about a game.

Tom: It’s such a breath of fresh air to see a game finally do Uri’s legacy justice. Trying to be an honest-to-god SpoonBend in a world of naysayers trying to call you out as a ‘fraud’? It’s a story that certainly needs more coverage. Make sure you keep your keys away from the box, lest they curl like rusty quavers.

Matt: Oh, and if you’re at a loose end this week or bored and stuck in another wave of lockdowns – some mildly good news: we’ll be back live-streaming on Twitch on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow evening! What are we playing? I actually don’t know yet! I’d better leave the news doc and get my chickens all in order – but we’ll hopefully see some of you tomorrow eve!

Ava: And finally, some sad news, with Satish Pillalamarri, of North Star Games, passing away. There’s a lovely photo retrospective and memorial, including a crowdfunder to raise money for his newborn son Om’s scholarship fund, which is lovely. It’s particularly heartbreaking as Satish will never meet his son, who was born while he was in intensive care, so please give generously if you can. I’ve been dealing with my own loss this weekend, and cried my way through Coco yesterday, so all I can really say is that I’m glad we will always keep telling stories that hold up the memories of the people we love and lose, so that we never entirely lose them. We carry the marks of all those we love, and we pass them on to the people we love, forever.

Matt: Beautifully put, Ava. I’ll also point out that the remaining 1,000 copies of Satish’s last game – Dude – have effectively been donated to the fund. Any copies bought through North Star’s website will see 100% of the purchase price going towards the scholarship fund. Our thoughts go out to anyone affected by the passing of Satish, and indeed anyone dealing with grief during this especially difficult year. Solidarity and love from us all – we hope you have a good week.

Ava: Tom, it’s well past morning, please just get up and do the games news, will you?

Tom: “’Tis the games news,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door… Only this and nothing more.”

Ava: Yes, so let’s bloody get on with it.

Tom: … nevermore!

Ava: Ooh, ooh. We’re going to bump a kickstarter to the top of the news purely because we really like Omari Akil and the work he’s doing to improve representation in the industry. So there.

Hoop Godz is Board Game Brothas’ follow up to Rap Godz, and is about basketball hoops, rather than hula hoops, surprising nobody.

A Distant Tom: What?!

Ava: The head-to-head two-player game will have you managing your team’s juice to take actions on the board to bounce a ball around and get it in the hoop. Yes, I definitely understand sports. The game has you spending and preserving resources to play action and reaction cards to control the ball and the field. When a player reacts to their opponent’s action, both players start rolling dice to try and match the symbols on your played cards to see who is successful. You’ll also be fielding different ballers into each game, for additional variety. The whole game is lavishly covered in illustrations by Hamu Dennis, who also worked with Akil on Rap Godz, the company’s previous game. That one is also available through this kickstarter so there’s a fair amount of godz-bang for your godz-buck on offer.

I’d also like to flag up the inclusion of a wheelchair-using player in the game, and this beautiful twitter thread about what that representation means. I don’t have more to say about this except that I want to see so much more of it.

Tom: Stress Botics puts you in the relatable role of easily-stressed robots doing tasks they don’t entirely understand. Gathering resources on an alien planet for a faceless corporation, players will be programming the bots in secret at the start of each turn, and attempting to optimise their gathering and grabbing.

Oh to be a faceless entity only concerned with gathering and grabbing. Return me to my monkey roots. Let me eat berry and hit rock. What’s a board game? I don’t know. I’m going to bloody invent talking.

Ava: How did you get onto being a monkey? We’re talking about robots.

Tom: Argh, sorry. It’s an overbearing fantasy this year – like being temporarily suspended in a void of infinite nothing, or making good bread. But back to Stress Botics – I really dig the nice little blueprint-y artstyle and the thoroughly chuckle-worthy concept that they programmed real human stress into blissfully innocent robots. Alongside those words and paint, though, I think that I can sense a nifty thematic throughline with stressed-out robots and stressed-out masters bumbling through an unsolvable, chaotic efficiency puzzle – like a Eurogame Robo-Rally? I’m intrigued.

Ava: Definitely. It sounds like a tough balancing act, juggling resources, programming, events, and enemy robots. It’s ambitious, but if they pull it off, it could be an appropriately stressful delight.

Okay, I’ve been sitting on this news item for approximately 10,020 years, since February. It’s stayed in the document because I’ve never seen a more perfect example of prehistoric pathos than this piece of copy-writing: “What might keep you from painting that mammoth? Death, in all its many forms.”

Paleo now has enough pictures and information for us to actually do some newsing. It’s a co-operative cavefolk game of surviving in a harsh landscape, with limited tools, all with the intent of doing a spot of painting to brighten up the cavern a bit. Players will send their own little team of humans off to explore locations and gather food and tools to help you survive, and complete quests. Stack enough of these together and you’ll be living your best art-cave life, and presumably winning the game. It comes with various modules to mix up and move the needle on exactly what sort of game you’re looking for, which is a nice little treat.

Tom: Eugh, to be a caveman only concerned with painting caves and being alive. There’s more to life! Ascend me into the stratospheric heights of cyber-being. What’s a rock? What’s a tree? I don’t know, and I don’t care; Arcadia Quest just came out in Virtual Reality 2, and all dice now have ᵠ sides.

Ava: I’m getting mixed messages here.

Ava: A ludicrously over-the-top pre-order is available for Dune Imperium, and I’m starting this item not entirely sure why people are so excited for it.

Dune Imperium offers a mix of deck building and worker placement, with a tiny soupçon of something similar to that conflict mechanic from Arctic Scavengers. Players take turns to play cards from their hand, going around one action at a time, but pulling out and revealing their remaining cards when they’ve decided all they have left is going into buying new cards or the inevitable and ever shifting sandy battles. Those reveals allow them to draw back up and restart the cycle.

I can’t quite twig why someone would pre-order the enormously fancy $100 edition. I do remain curious though, as theoretically there’s room in my heart for a conflict filled economic deck-builder.

Tom: There’s a real treasure-trove of design diaries on this one, if you want to get your hype on for Dune 2: Shai-Huludaloo.

Ava: I am pleased to see there’s more detail available on what should actually be exciting about this game, as that implies that the hype-bowl could be full for reasons other than ‘sandworm enthusiasm’ and ‘enjoying saying Denis Villeneuve’s name’. Put that in your soup and smoke it.

Ava: I’m increasingly intrigued by the various kickstarters that crop up offering escape room style puzzles: They seem to have such wonderfully convoluted approaches to the sense of place that’s likely to be missing at home. Spectre and Vox was an utterly baffling kickstarter page to me initially, until I got about halfway down and realised that you were supposed to build a literal dollhouse and solve puzzles both inside it and in the interactive audio assistant alongside it. I also could have watched an entire three seconds into the video to figure out the same, but that would be breaking the habit of a lifetime.

Ava: When this dropped into the company slack, Quinns commended it for attempting to pitch the assembly of 296 pieces as the first bit of the puzzle, rather than simply the fact that it’s an enormously elaborate piece of kit that’s a craft project in and of itself. There’s a lot of ambition here, and a bundle of people who appear to have the history to pull it off. It’s still likely to be a very niche product, but I hope they manage to find the people who will absolutely want to dive into this audio augmented dollhouse mystery.

Tom: I just took a huge dive into the nostalgia of this spooky castle pop-up book that I had when I was but a boy – and I remember it as being much less delightfully crap than it looks in the cold light of age. An awful lot of that Kickstarter pitch excited the same part of my brain that loved that thing so much I eventually broke it – and as much as little Tom tried his best with pritt-stick and sellotape, the damage was done.

Hopefully the wooden construction of this haunted house will be a little more sturdy, when it arrives at my house tomorrow to ensure a glowing review *waggles eyebrows*

Ava: You absolutely cannot use the games news to bag yourself a £150 Haunted House

Tom: *waggling intensifies*

Ava: Alright, I’m shutting this down. Have a great week, everybody!

Eric: As I write this, I’m looking at a copy of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 sitting on my bookshelf. I am smiling. I am crying. It is a game I will always love, and I will never know how it ends.

Elizabeth and I got married almost a decade and a half ago. I was already firmly entrenched in my hobbies, painting miniatures and running a weekly D&D campaign. Initially it was “my thing,” and I never tried to make her love games. However, over our early years, she slowly eased into them. We played some Ticket to Ride, some Catan, and soon she was hooked. I remember the first time we finished playing Caverna, which became an enduring favorite. She told me she really liked it, probably in part because she won. I pointed out that she couldn’t say she wasn’t a board gamer anymore. She gave me her little half-smile and said she didn’t know what I was talking about.

Elizabeth was first diagnosed with cancer five years ago. We were just about to move across the country for a new job, and our third child was still an infant; we grieved an uncertain future for us and for our kids. We played Arboretum and Forbidden Desert as she recovered from a surgery to remove the tumors, cards and tiles splayed across that misshapen table that never quite fits over the hospital bed. The nurse asked what we were doing and stared blankly at me as I tried to explain the concept of a designer board game. Then she turned to my wife and said, “And you enjoy these?” She just gave another half-smile and took her next turn.

Like much of the gaming world, the original Pandemic Legacy was a revelation to us. Without treading too far into the realm of spoilers, we named one of our diseases “Zomboid Fever” when we started. I’ll let those who have played it guess what transpired. Suffice it to say that a few months in I jumped to my feet, yelled “What!?” and spilled a glass of water across the floor. I framed the components when we were done. Her fluid script decorates the cards.

Perhaps that is part of what enchants me about this hobby: the way relational and emotional memories become entangled with tangible objects around my house and on my table. I’m looking through our battered copy of Jaipur, our favorite two-player game. I remember playing it a few years back, after the initial diagnosis and before the word “terminal” entered the equation. We were sitting in a hotel lobby, traveling for our anniversary. I asked her if she still had those jewels she took at the beginning of the game. She looked at me suspiciously and asked if I was keeping track of everything in her hand. I said maybe. She asked what else she was holding. I told her. As a half-dozen people stared, she threw the cards at me and we laughed and went upstairs and celebrated a love that had become comfortable and sweeter ten years in.

So many of our friendships are interwoven with these objects. We’d invite people over for some wine and Splendor or Coup. We always loved the sides of our friends revealed within the magic circle of a game: a usually quiet and demure wife transforming into perhaps the most cutthroat economic gamer I have ever met, or an awkward group from our church yelling accusations and lying through their teeth fifteen minutes into the Resistance. My wife never gave into such base impulses, although she dearly loved to see me lose and would occasionally try to take me down a peg or two at the cost of victory for herself. I try to take photos of the group whenever I play a new game, and there are literally hundreds of faces in those pictures whom we love and whose lives have enlarged our own.

Elizabeth’s cancer came back with a vengeance a few years ago. We knew it was incurable. There were many nights, once the kids were down, tired from the uncertainty and grief, that she would ask to play a game. Sometimes I said no. I wish I hadn’t. Even though we were too emotionally spent to stare into each other’s eyes and talk about deep things, the evenings we did break something out were a chance to be together, to know and be known. Part of a relationship is built face-to-face, through conversations and revelations, but much is built side-by-side as you do things together, sharing experiences in the company of another. Board games were for us both a chance to learn about each other and a voyage of discovering a story, an artifact, a world.

When I heard that Pandemic Legacy Season 0 was due out in late October, I emailed Z-Man Games and asked if we could have an advance copy. It didn’t seem like we had much time left. They generously gave us one and we dove in, playing several times a week, sensing that the clock was ticking. We were right. We have two game months left, but Elizabeth won’t be playing anymore. She is asleep in a bed beside me, in that twilight season where we seek to keep her comfortable until she slips beneath the waters and I can’t see her anymore.

I have no intention of finishing the game with someone else. It seems right to have it cut off, always a mixture of the happy and the sad, always unresolved. Death is like that. We’ve known for years it was coming. We’ve heard its footsteps nearing in the hall. Yet it still came as a surprise when the door opened and it drew near. There are so many conversations left to be had, so many memories left unconfirmed, so many jokes that will never have a punchline. The sealed boxes and unopened envelopes are a reified manifestation of life’s always-premature last page.

I don’t know what I will do, as a parent or a human being, on the far side of this thing. After thirteen years of marriage, I’m not even sure I know who I will be alone. Yet I am so glad we played this game together, even without the ending we had planned.

Elizabeth’s favorite games were the ones where you built something along the way. Win or lose, she would say, at least she could look back at what she had made and feel like she had made something meaningful. Life is a game like that, and despite the sense that we are in some cosmic sense losing, there is so much meaning in what we have made.

Ava: How’s that? Better?

Tom: YES. Now please never do that again. You’ll confuse the readers and unsettle my breakfast.

Ava: I promise. Only if it’s convenient for the purposes of a joke, or I don’t want to be held responsible for one of my opinions.

Tom: Fine. Wait, what?

Ava: I didn’t manage to spend much time at Spiel Digital, it taking place while I was still hungover from our very own online convention. But I’ll be spending the coming weeks poring through what I can to see if I can dig out any exciting announcements. Please drop by the comments if there’s anything you saw that you’re excited about that we haven’t yet newsed-up. The one thing I did catch was a little bit of a preview of the previously teased new Descent box, and it looks like we finally have enough details to give it a news item.

Descent: Legends in the Dark, aims to mark a break from its predecessor, with Fantasy Flight keen to state that this isn’t Descent: Journeys in the Dark: Third edition, but instead the start of a new line within the same universe. The new Descent will be a fully co-operative, app-addled experience of dungeon crawling adventure, boasting an utter boatload of fancy toys to play with. There’s a 16 episode campaign called Blood and Flame, and multilayered 3D terrain and even miniature furniture: clearly attempting (and succeeding, I think) to out-do Heroquest’s recently announced adventure-dollhouse.

For me the star here is some really gorgeous character art, hopefully the start of FFG lifting their generally fairly bland fantasy world ‘Terrinoth’ to a place where I actually care about it. Mechanically, the company is highlighting the ‘ready’ action which lets you flip character or equipment cards to get a wider set of options from each card. Included in this are double-sided weapon cards that slide into sleeves, allowing you to bladeholster your sword and unquiver your bow. Or in the example, swap your spear for a bell, which feels less likely, but at least uses real words.

I’m curious about whether Fantasy Flight is leaving space to expand that world again with an actual third edition that maintains the one versus many charm of the original. I’m a little surprised at them picking a fight with all co-operative Gloomhaven and Son, when they could’ve been making themselves stand out more by iterating beyond the improvements that Imperial Assault carved for them. Though I guess that would be at risk of cannibalizing their own product. BUSINESS IS HARD.

The whole thing is landing an eye-sweltering recommended retail price of 175 American Dollaroonies, which honestly made me yelp. After comparing it favourably to Heroquest and pondering its ability to go up against Gloomhaven, I’m left having to admit that both those options cost considerably less. Hopefully that means Fantasy Flight is pouring something truly spectacular into this big blue box of dungeons, but I’ll certainly be keeping my wallet shut until I’ve spoken to someone who’s actually played it. Though admittedly, I’m not actually that hype for dungeon crawlers. Your mileage, as the old saying goes, may vary. As may your wallet.

Elsewhere in Spiel-wrangling. One of my post-con tricks is to take a look at which games have suddenly bumped to the top of ‘the hotness’ on boardgamegeek. Mostly it’s stuff we’ve already covered, with The Lost Ruins of Arnak, Hallertau and Praga Caput Regni taking the top spots. But at number four (at the time of writing) is a game I’ve had in the back end of the news for a while, waiting for enough pictures to justify us covering it.

Anno 1800 is new from Martin Wallace, designer of Age of Steam, A Few Acres of Snow and the brownest game in my collection, Mythotopia. Anno 1800 is based on the city building game of the same name, part of a series with a lot of different years in it. It also boasts a tremendous number of buildings which you’ll be filling with people to produce the goods needed to fulfil demand cards. Reading a review of it led me to the delightful idea of a fur coat factory being exactly what you need to turn an engineer into an investor, because that’s what fur coats DO. It sounds delightfully byzantine, with carefully managed production chains being the order of the day.

Tom: I played a little bit of Anno 1800: Computer Videogame and I found it a satisfying little puzzle of managing the different ways you can turn Pig into Useful. It is, regrettably, one of those games that is set in a nebulous ‘new world’ that looks nearer to the equator than its alabaster protagonists might suggest, skirting any discussion about ‘the thing’ with a grace and dignity equalled only by the construction of this awkward run-on sentence. To be fair, I could be wrong about this assertion as I only played a little bit before getting lost in the age-old question of ‘sausage or soap’.

Ava: For some reason I assume that Tom will have played Darkest Dungeon, and will be able to give us the skinny on whether it’s the sort of thing that will transfer well to a board game. Of course, when I did this with The Last of Us, Tom had no idea what I was talking about and I just dropped a load of research on him about a game we had no information about. I guess we’ll see. Take it away Tom!

Tom: Unlike The Last of Us, Darkest Dungeon is something I have played, and I’ve played it a lot! Essentially, it’s a gothic horror dungeon crawler with a heavy, heavy emphasis on the psychological and physical toll of dungeon delving. As well as managing your health bar you’re also managing your mental health bar, and peaking out the latter through witnessing all the horror leads to bad stuff . While crawling through dungeons, you also upgrade a little hub area with various “improvements” that will hopefully lead you to a higher chance of success further down the line, with bosses and a mega dungeon at the end to cap it all off. I played a lot of the game and then bounced stupid hard off of it when I realised what you had to do to finish the thing and thought: no. I have other games to play.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BOARDGAME?! It looks like the core loop is intact – with dungeon-crawling, hamlet-building and perma-deathing aplenty – plus the amount of quirks, items, skills and stresses that can potentially pile onto your adventurer is utterly enticing to me, a fan of ‘games what evolve’. Alas! My potential excitement for seeing a game I like turned into a game I might like has been slightly quashed by twenty one scroll-wheels worth of bonus pledge gubbins – which instantly places this in the territory of Nemesis – ‘a game that is good but I really struggle to recommend to anyone unless you are a household of four people that really like the same kind of boardgames and also playing one game upwards of thirty times’.

Ava: Oh dear, it’s shameless self promotion time. Don’t Get Got was a game of party-based trickery that Quinns loved in his review. In fact, we were so effusive that Big Potato Games reached out and asked us to do an orange, standalone expansion full of even more bizarre and challenging missions to attempt to sneak your friends into doing.

Tom: AND in doubly exciting news, that Kickstarter has been updated with cheaper shipping! AND in TRIPLY exciting news, Big Potato are now including every single challenge from the base game with our expansion for it, if you don’t own the original and want to get get get get got got got got over and over again. I was going to make a joke about this blatant self promotion, but I can’t use the ‘in the pocket of big [blank]’ epithet because we are literally ‘in the pocket of big potato’.

Ava: Is that a big potato in your pocket or are you just……… actually I don’t want to know of any alternative explanation for that, I’m just going to go with the big potato hypothesis.

Under Falling Skies is starting to look like one of the lushest solo productions we’ve ever seen. I’m fully behind the idea of releasing a lovely, solid print and play for free, and then providing a paid for version that is lush, huge, generous and, frankly over the top. Under Falling Skies gains a whole campaign hidden in multiple layers in the box, offering a load of secret variations on the dice selecting planet defender. This design diary digs deep into its creation, and I remain surprisingly hype. I think I’m the one member of the Shut Up & Sit Down editorial team who hasn’t yet dunked themself into a quarantine-induced plunge-pool of solo-gaming. And that’s despite my passion for solo Mage Knight meaning that in the before times, I was the only SU&SD bod who DID play solo games sometimes. Maybe this is the game to dunk me in the lonely end.

Tom: I think everyone on the team was deeply perplexed by how CGE made real sheets of ‘spoiler-blur’ to go in the demo box? You can see chat and Matt react in real time to the actual wizardry of this stuff during CGE’s AwSHUX stream, as well as marvel at how much has been piled behind said blur to make a buy worthwhile. Inhuman Conditions sits in a similar position as a ‘print and play’ gone ‘purchase and play’ in a new genre that I am very very here for.

Ava: Phil Walker-Harding has a hell of a hit rate. Between Archaeology, Barenpark, Imhotep and Sushi Go, he’s carved out a niche as an incredibly sharp designer of incredibly accessible games. I still think about the fact that while Uwe Rosenberg took three swings and misses at making ‘Patchwork but for more than two players’ with the garden trilogy, Phil Walker-Harding just said ‘what about bears’ and absolutely nailed the multiplayer tetromino business. (Though I’m also pretty curious to see if New York Zoo sees Uwe snatching back the polyomino crown). All of which is to ruthlessly tangent away from the actual news, that there’s a lovely interview with Mr Phil on board game geek, and it was only while skimming it that I realised quite how hard I respect this man’s back catalogue.

That’s not a euphemism.

Tom: I love that you’ve spent half a paragraph trying to get two designers into a polyomino battle.

Ava: There’s just not enough beef in the game designer industry! I want to see wrestling match style trash-talking skits before demos at conventions.

Tom: We will not rest until we see Kramer Vs Kiesling. The Royal Reiner-Rosenburg Rumble. The whole clan of Engelsteins facing off against the Fryxelius family.

Ava: More violence in board games, says I, surprisingly.