Boardgames To Go

Sorry for the nearly 2-week break between podcasts. That wasn't my plan, but life sometimes gets busy. Fortunately, half of that was for a fun weekend spent winetasting with Candy when the kids stayed with my folks. We went to the Santa Ynez valley area made more famous recently by the movie Sideways.But this show isn't about that--it's about catching up on some older feedback (including another

A little bit longer podcast this time, as we played lots of games and had some interesting discussion to boot! Plus, I responded to feedback at the beginning of the show, something I hadn't done for a while.By the way, one of the reasons we played Tower of Babel at this session was to counteract the botched rules at an earlier outing. I wasn't at that previous session, so those forgotten/

Finally! I've wanted to get back to a theme show for a while, and one on microgames has been on my to-do list. As I say in the show, this is really sort of training me for doing some shows about wargames. I'm not ready to do that yet, but it will come someday.This was another recording using the mobile device, a Treo 650, rather than my normal laptop & headset mic rig. There's a drop in audio

Over a week between podcasts, rats! Well, sometimes our lives get busy, right? Between a crunch at work . . . and a literal crunch at home (car crash--everyone's ok), there wasn't a chance to record anything recently. Hopefully I'll catch up soon.First up is another in-between show. I guess it's mostly an audio session report, but since it talks about SoCal Games Day, and especially dads playing

This show was something of a hybrid, an audio session report that had an overall theme: 2-player games. That's because the most recent Santa Clarita Boardgamer session just had two players! Myself and BGTG logo designer Greg Wilzbach. We got in some good ones, and once again it made me think that we ought to play these more even on nights when we've got more turnout.Speaking of those logos, the

Once again I included my son Sam on the podcast. This show is an audio session report for some games played with family over the 4th of July holiday weekend. So it's got some angst about getting family to play the sort of games I like, trying to pick things they like, and then worrying about how well they went over. :)Be sure to vote on the new logos using the webpoll in my right sidebar. Thanks!

I've been wanting to do this for a while, talk for an entire show about one game. And now I've done it, about one of my very favorite games Entdecker. I suppose this kind of show is really something of an audio game review, though I didn't plan it that way when I started talking. Entdecker is a game that's been published in two separate versions, has a well-known variant, another I prefer, and

A quick little show, the shortest I've done in a while. Mostly I just struck while the iron was hot, but with a surge in subscribers due to podcast support in iTunes, it's proven to be timely. Welcome new listeners! As I say in the little audio aside, I encourage the new folks to check out the permanently linked shows at the top of the right sidebar: intro shows about podcasting and also strategy

I wonder how long it will be until I feel like I know what I'm doing?! Seems like every podcast I learn a little something new. This time it's as simple as making the podcast and blog post title with the games listed NOT in the order we played them. Otherwise, Tonga Bonga leads every audio SR this month, and at first glance it looks like I'm podcasting about the same thing. In a way, I guess I am

After a trio of shows sharing the microphone with someone else, I’m back to doing my solo show. That will still be what I do most of the time, I think. It’s back to a theme show, too, focusing on the history of Internet communication on our hobby. Mailing lists, newsgroups, websites, that sort of thing. I didn’t really get to all of the websites I wanted to cover—guess I’ll have to have a part 2

Anyone who's a parent of multiple kids knows this rule: be fair to all of them. So after Sam got a chance to be on my podcast, talking about the games he likes, I knew that Molly deserved a turn. Actually, she had wanted to do it first! Molly just finished third grade, and was my little boardgame player even before her older brother. Although she plays the occasional video game, she's not into

Here's another show where I have someone else recording with me. Only this time it's my son Sam, and he's plugged in locally to the same laptop. (Technical aside: this was incredibly easy, just patching in a second microphone/headset using a five-dollar audio jack splitter! I need to do more of this with local friends.) Besides hearing from the horse's mouth about a 5th/6th grader's attitudes

You asked for a second voice on Boardgames To Go? You got it!Ok, only some of you asked for a second voice. And ok, I won't have someone like Mike Mayer joining me on the podcast regularly. In fact, right now I think I'll still do the majority of the shows solo. But now that I've figured out how to patch in a remote collaborator for the show, I will do more of this in the future. I want to get

Last week I joked that Tonga Bonga would be our Game of the Month. Here we were, playing it again--by request! Maybe it's meant to be. This time was different in that it was a 3-player game, and I won big instead of losing big. Then I got to try Ryan & Erin's new Crokinole board. It's not theirs, really--they bought it as a graduation gift for Erin's cousin. This board is from Crokinole World,

A nice, big session report. Last week's session wasn't any longer than the previous one, but instead of playing one big game (Struggle of Empires), this time we played several shorter games. These are always my favorite game nights, though I can handle a longer game once in a while.I also was able to open with several listener comments, which was fun. Keep 'em coming.Email Mark JohnsonGamesTonga

A show all about me. I hope this is still of interest to everyone--I figure it's important to know where your writer/podcaster is coming from. Once you're calibrated on who I am, you can interpret my reactions to different games a bit better. I start at the games I played as a kid, but then move through the microgames and roleplaying games that dominated high school and college. The boardgaming

This show may not be as interesting to listeners who have been enjoying this hobby for a while. But as I mentioned in a previous show, I think it's important that this podcast have one show intended for newcomers. Though there are at least a couple more boardgame podcasts out there, mine is still the one that pops up when someone does a podcast search specifically for boardgames (only because

I had a few technical challenges with this show--hopefully none of them come through in the recording. (I did the intro on my little Treo phone/PDA thingie, then pasted it into my normal Audacity recording software. I hadn't noticed that this fiddled with my normal sampling rate, which affects some CD burners. I think I fixed it, though.) By all means, let me know if something is amiss.Note the

A theme show I'd mentioned earlier, focusing on the ideas behind game awards. I was consciously trying to avoid just making this a rundown of the various awards, trying to get a little behind the purpose and motivation for game awards. Was I successful? Partially, I think.Email Mark JohnsonLinksBrett & Board's Awards pageInternational Gamers AwardsDeutscher Spiel Preis form (and Mik's explanation

Finishing up the earlier theme show about conventions, this time covering invitational events like The Gathering of Friends and Gulf Games, then wrapping up with some of the smallest but best events, public Games Days.At the end I mention the next theme show will be about the various game awards, and I'm asking for feedback/input about that topic in particular.Links(No website for private events