A community for Southern California Tabletop Games.
Session Reviews are discussions of games played in a specific session. They include elements of a review plus details of a specific play of the game. Some call them ‘gonzo reviews’.
Written by E.R. Burgess
Team Play had significant buzz coming out of The Gathering of Friends 2016, seeming like it was this year’s Strike. Like Strike, which had been overlooked for a few years, GOF attendees seemed to have racked up multiple plays over the course of the event. While that’s not hard to do with shorter games, players […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
As a fan of cooperative games, I’ve been interested to try Victory Point Games’ Darkest Night for a while. The sub-genre is one of my favorites and I find it hard to believe it’s almost a decade on since Pandemic made its splash onto the board game scene and inspired the hobby to get on […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
(continued from the first page) While Blight works well, I do wish I could see the effort help us manage the threats. While removing them reduces frustration, I had a hard time tracking how our efforts were helping in the battle against the Necromancer. Once in a while, something we did reduce the ‘Darkness’ (a […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
Fisticuffs was a successful Kickstarter from a parallel universe to the one where gamer boardgames exist. Like Cards Against Humanity or The Oatmeal’s Exploding Kittens game, these titles are a lot about the humor and creativity of the individuals involved – sometimes at the expense of game play. While apologists will defend the titles as […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
Most modern gamers love beautiful components. Maybe it’s a reaction to our excessive screentime these days, where we travel in magical, wondrous worlds that we can see and hear but cannot touch. For me, that’s a lot of the appeal of board games. Having physical pieces to handle while looking at the faces of friends and […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
I love the microgame. While shorter games with minimal components have been around for a long while and the term ‘microgame’ meant something a bit different back in the 80’s, the modern microgames hit the US with Love Letter from Alderac Entertainment a few years back. Like so many others who hadn’t been privy to the […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
Jeff Siadek has been a local hero game designer for a long time here in Los Angeles. Listeners of the podcast may recall he’s joined me on the show before when he was the Guest of Honor at a past Strategicon but I’ve known Jeff for decades. He’s a good guy that I always enjoy […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
When I heard the name Fabulous Beasts, I like most Harry Potter fans, expected to hear something about the upcoming movie or slim volume produced by JK Rowling. But no – Fabulous Beasts is instead a new board/electronic game from publisher Sensible Object that combines a physical stacking game with an app experience that brings […]
Written by E.R. Burgess
The review of the game-cation continues with more wonderful games we played. Level X This pleasant EasyPlay game got played once on Friendcation and it’s a favorite opening filler. I actually have four EasyPlay and Schmidt titles in a Ligretto Dice box (adding Finito, Level X, Numeri) that I always bring on holiday with me. Level […]
