Game Brain is a weekly podcast, hosted by Matthew Robinson, focusing on board gaming, but through the lens of his board gaming group. Each week Matthew brings on a different member of his gaming group as a co-host. There are eight group members in total including Matthew so each will act as co-host roughly once every two months.
While the focus of the podcast is to review board games, preview board games, talk about our current board game obsessions, discuss the board game news, rave rant and wax poetic about board games... it will all be done through the lens of an actual, weekly board game group.
We think this format will truly be the best way to showcase the board gaming hobby in the most realistic and positive way possible - as a social activity done amongst distinctive, familiar, close and (usually) loving friends.
Here Francisco Gradaille. Thanks for the comment on the game and for the efforts at pronunciation 😁. Happy to hear that Jordan and Mat enjoyed the game.
Another absolutely glowing review. And I agree completely. I love Arcs so far. Even though I prefer Wehrlegig games over his Leder games, Arcs really does it for me and I haven’t even tried the campaign yet.
This format right here is it! This can single-handedly turn this channel into something exciting. I like that you are talking to a board game veteran audience and don't talk like we all just finished our first session of Wingspan. Lovely editing and B-rolls. I for one would love to see a video like this maybe once a month? Especially focusing on games that are getting mixed reviews/ratings but that you liked a lot. Always exciting to discover some underappreciated gems. I was recently looking into Agora, Manhattan Project 2 and even Terramarra because all three look somehow VERY intriguing but have not been getting a lot of love sadly
Thanks! I really enjoy manhattan project 2. Maybe that’ll be my next vid. But first I’m heading abroad for 3 weeks - so it may be a moment before anything goes up!
I subscribed to this channel a million years ago and promptly stopped watching any of the videos since they were just the podcast. But this was great. I hope other people like it too!
@@GameBrainPod Ben just wanted to take a moment to tell you that I honestly feel you are one of the most glowing and funny people in this hobby. Keeping doing what you are doing and congrats on your success with your other podcast :) Super happy for you
Here's the thing about the Tinker: you dying or not dying opens up more worlds and closes off others, maybe more than any other player, depending on the script. You can get an enormous amount of information from dying at night, because the Storyteller is using it to hide something or balance the game (unless the demon happens to target you). For instance, if you alone die at night, odds are there's a Po charging. If you are executed next to a Tea Lady, that means the other player might be a powerful good player and they want to point town that way to re-balance the game (and if they claim to be something mundane and not special, if you trust the Tea Lady, then maybe they are evil after all!) If a Gossip says something and you're the only death, it probably wasn't the gossip that killed you. While you don't get to do anything, instead what you get is the benefit of narrowing worlds.
Hello Tom and Jesse, great podcast. Fun to listen to. I'm hoping you'll get a copy of Hegemony: Lead Your Class To Victory and let us know how it compares.
I would agree with Tom's take on the mastermind role... if the possible roles in Bad Moon Rising were simply thrown together with a limited amount of thought put into them, rather than rigorously tested and designed for years, like it really was. If a mastermind is put into a custom script, it often can cause the exact problem that Tom described, but that isn't the case for Bad Moon Rising. Sure, there are times where you can't be exactly sure wether the mastermind has been activated, due to a streak of bad luck for the town, leading them to simply not know, or missing some crucial clue, but, more often than not, the townsfolk will have clues, and they can use those clues to figure it out. The biggest clue that the demon died yesterday is that the demon's death deactivates their role's killing power (wether that be decided by the demon or the storytellers), which, if the players can figure that out together (through deduction of how the people who died that night, died, or, didn't die), then they can skip the execution and either win out-right, or execute one of the bad players and win, or, if the weird amount of deaths wasn't caused by the demon being dead (for example, the Po charging up), simply move on to the next night, without risking a loss to the mastermind. Also, the inclusion of the mastermind in Bad Moon Rising does cause that uncertainty about executing that Tom was complaining about, but it is absolutely intentional, and it works in most cases. If you (as the whole town) are uncertain about it being a mastermind round, and have some clue/s that it could be, you don't have to execute anyone. For example, Bad Moon Rising has a lot of roles that can cause death, and a few roles that can cause a lot of it, leading to the possibility of half of the town dying in one night, but, many of the townsfolk roles are chosen for this script with that fact in mind, learning valuable scraps of information from exactly how many people did or did not die, and who (including many roles that can cause certain players to be invulnerable). Also, quite a few of the roles in BMR cause deaths that are left up to the storyteller (including the somewhat unfortunate tinker, but also many more), which means that the storyteller can choose who dies to an extent, letting them help whichever team needs it, in order to reach a satisfying end for everyone. Also, the whole thing about players not wanting to play as the Tinker, can extend to many other outsider roles in different ways. Many people don't like playing the Butler, because their "power" is only a downside with little control, like the Tinker. Also, the same can be said of most other outsider roles, to a lesser extent, since they are usually large weaknesses with little strengths (though some of them do have strengths, alongside their weaknesses)
Also also, besides the fact that the Mastermind actually works pretty well in conjunction with the rest of the roles in Bad Moon Rising, due to the reasons I already stated and more, it especially works well with the Zombuul being in the script. If you really believe that the person you executed yesterday was probably the demon, then both the Zombuul and Mastermind being in the same script means that you can't exactly be sure which of them it is. If the mastermind wasn't in Bad Moon Rising, the Zombuul would be much less effective, since there could only be one reason why a demon being executed wouldn't end the game. With the possibilty of the Mastermind being in play, you can't be sure. And if you are sure that the person you executed was the demon, then simply executing them again would be the correct choice, either way, since if it was the Mastermind and not the Zombuul, the bad team would lose from being executed while the Mastermind round was happening. If it was the Zombuul and not the Mastermind, then you win. If both the Zombuul and Mastermind are in the same game, and the Mastermind was still alive when the Zombuul truly died, then you have an interesting situation on your hands, which the good team could easily win with the clues they gathered throughout the game, like how I described in my first comment.
not sure at all how this is a 4.5...this is not a difficult game by any stretch of the imagination. Learning the combos is a trial and error, but the rules and the mechanics are not hard. Choice doesn't equal difficulty. I feel like its misleading to say its so difficult. I threw this out on the table for the first time play with four others, and it went smooth as any other game we have played. No concerns at all about this one.
Fascinating discussion of storytelling and gaming! I liked that this wasn't one-sided by saying that the modern style of storytelling is 'better', just that they are different.
- Pretty good draft choices, but your 1st draft was a bit of a mistake. Swing Plow and Cultivator is extremely strong combo. Definitely Swing Plow over Moldboard. - On your 2nd draft it was probably correct to not take the bellfounder hoping clay deliveryman wheels, b/c there was a rammed clay in the first pack as well and someone would prob have already taken rammed clay + clay deliveryman. - Big mistake was taking Lutenist on your 4th draft (it's one of the worst cards in the game and a big trap for lower ELO players). You had Roof Ballaster which was an A tier card and helps you easily get to stone. Also there's an argument to taking Trident over Hutch here. I think Butter Churn is also quite good compared to Hutch. - Finally it was hilarious that Clay deliveryman wheeled and the person who picked rammed clay didn't also take that card right away. - Half Timbered House wheeling is also pretty hilarious. But it shows just how good taking Roof Ballaster over Lutenist would have been. With these tweaks you would have had an easy game plan to build at least 4 rooms (if family growth flipped early - otherwise consider only building 3 rooms), plow 6 fields (with swing plow) and then reno to stone with HTH for a lot of points. Then fence and take sheep and play animal catcher at the end.
Nice insert, but would there be room for all the cards once they're thicker from being sleeved? Doesn't look like it, since those unsleeved cards are already stacked up to the top of their compartments.
Hearing how you guys communicate with each other subtlety and give indications between Percival and Merlin was so interesting. I play with a group of coworkers who are engineers, and we always devolve into statistical likelihoods and voting frequencies, there's no interpersonal play whatsoever. Crazy to see the differences in how people play the game
The off-site "destroy my engine for short-term gain" mechanic is very much the same as Terra Mystica's bowl 2 power suck. Spend it if you need it, but you ain't gettin it back.
I have about 100 games and I am feeling overwhelmed also. I have about 25 I am culling. I have seen so many people with 300+ games struggle to handle such a collection. The guy that got me into hobby board gaming has that many. It pains him when we ask what game we are going to play because of the sheer amount of choices he has. I am trying to avoid getting to that point. I think my ideal situation will be having less than 50 games myself. Brass, Concordia, Pax Pamir, and Food Chain Magnate are going to be the core games of my collection. They are the ones none of my fellow gamers have copies of. With a group of avid gamers it is easier to spread load the game collections.
Thank you ... I think it was nice with a level headed discussion of this. I think a part of the reason this is a sore issue on BGG is because a lot of people feel that those bringing it up often do it with a clear undertone of "Critical Race Theory" - which I can certainly understand if they regard as more political/ideological than academic. ... and then they see that that's allowed by moderation, but countering it isn't. Anyway ... I think GMT made the right call with "Scramble for Africa" and the outrage about the cancellation is rather misguided in that specific case. However, there are other things were I think the outrage of about the games are blown out of proportion. Puerto Rico is one example. I mean... We are talking about a very abstracted and probably partly erroneous representation of several 100 years old history. Nobody should take their history lessons or moral lessons from that anyway. You can get inspired to read about the history of Puerto Rico - sure, but still ... claiming the game speaks about any contemporary moral issue is just misguided. As an analogy. I recently saw this comment about a wargame ("Unconditional Surrender") being implemented on BGA: "How disturbed one can be to make or to play such games? Take this off the list. Millions of human have died, that was not a game, it was bitter! "So - someone obviously find wargames morally problematic. ... and I guess, in much the same way as many people say they find Puerto Rico morally problematic.But that's an absurd approach to wargames.People playing wargames about WWII are not telling themselves that Holocaust didn't happen or trying to trivialize it or to rewrite history.In fact... many wargamers probably know more about the ACTUAL history than people not playing wargames.The game is only a distillation of *some* of the aspects of the war - namely the strategic aspect. It's not intended to be a complete and morally nuanced history lesson. If you want to learn the actual history, go read a book or watch a documentary. In fact many wargamers get inspired to do just that.Of course - the game might not be a good simulation of the actual war. It can still be a good game though.Just as Puerto Rico might not be a historic correct abstraction of the history of the island ... and it doesn't try to deal with other aspects than the engine building of your business. They are just two games taking inspiration from history. History we can't change anyway. If we should apply the same logic the criticism of Puerto Rico has to wargames (and as this guy offended seemed to do) that would blow away a whole genre of board games on a rather irrational premise IMHO. Now, I could understand it if we were talking about games about contemporary issues. I wouldn't like to play a game about a contemporary war. - or any other contemporary atrocity.Some say the games should then reflect the actual historic atrocities so they stood out and taught a moral lesson. But why?! ... who would play a game about WWII where you simulated Holocaust? ... what good would producing such a game do? ... would that make more people go read up on the actual history?I don't believe so.Games as a medium are rather limited in what they can teach us about history. ... what they *can* do, however is to inspire people to go learn actual history from better mediums.And they don't need to be made into excruciating moral dilemmas to do that. They just need to be good games .
Hmm... I have 1 Lacerda game ... I think that's enough for me. They seem similar and not very "defining" any hobby here. I also only have 1 Rosenberg game (not counting the bean trading card game). ... But I think Agricola is a bit more of a classic than Vinhos. I don't think I need more of any of them ... I mean ... strictly speaking. They are both still pushing stuff to people we strictly don't need :)
How do you feel this compares to 'Fresh Fish' (2014)? Which you mention as a tactical game, by Friedemann Friese; I hear the newer version rules are easier to grasp.
Really enjoyed watching that. Best bit was seeing everyone's faces and getting to know you all a bit more through the magic of video. Congrats on the milestone guys!
Love to see you play finnaly! The game looked suprisingly simular to ours when We play in person. Although We have a strict rule about No talking What so ever after someone ”pushes to vote”. A bit unlucky seating position for the bad guys coming into round 2. Hope to see more of this some time!
