Aaron has a game group where the host chooses the games and he's noticed some people love to play new games and others only want to play games they already know and love. Which category do you fall into? If you're cult of the new, why? What is it about the new hotness that makes you turn your back on your beloved favourites? What's the high we're a…

After a longer than expected delay, we have episode 66! In this episode Royce and Aaron talk about co-op games. Historically we haven't been fans, but that doesn't mean we can't talk all about them. What works? Why? What doesn't? How can we fix it? Plus our favourite co-op games. Finally we end with our TOP 3 IP or themes that would make great co-o…

Welcome to Episode 64, and a return to our usual format. In this episode Aaron and I discuss the Board Game Geek rankings. What does it mean to be ranked number one? How are the rankings determined? And of course, what are the TOP 3 games ranked 3000 or higher? Plus our usual Quick Thoughts, News and More.…

In this episode Royce is joined by Liam, and we throw the usual format out of the window. Instead, we do a deep dive book report on the novelization of Settlers of Catan. Is this giant tome of a book worth hunting down a copy? Is this the pinnacle of game fiction? Or a waste of several trees? Let's find out together.…

In Episode 60, Royce and Aaron talked about their favourite games played in 2022, and now we turn to the rest. What was the best TV, Movies, Books, Music and everything else that we got to experience in 2022? Let's find out. But just in case you think we aren't still a board game podcast, we also look at some recent plays including Calico, Block an…

In a special express episode, Royce talks about going back to a time in his life when he was obsessed with just one game instead of every game. Warhammer 40k. What is it like to return to a lifestyle game after over 10 years. Can any game hold up to that kind of pressure?By Royce Calverley

Royce and Aaron talk about their 12 best games of 2022! Why 12? Because we thought it was 2012 and that it made sense...until we realized it didn't, but by then it was too late so we just went with it. Plus we look at how Magic the Gathering is tanking the stock market, and a few of our recent quick plays. It's our end of the year episode!…

Welcome Henk Rolleman, arguably the best professional board game photographer in the world. Henk has been working as a board game photographer for almost 2 decades, he's been the official photographer for Essen Spiel, is the photo editor for two board game magazines, and I guarantee you've seen his work. Henk joins Royce to talk about everything bo…

Welcome to Episode 58: A Store by any other name! Aaron's back again to talk about what makes a game store great! What do we look for in a store? What turns us off a store? We even rank some of our best local stores. In Quick thoughts we talk about Dune Imperium, Imagineers, Point Salad: Eevee Edition, and Ono99. We discuss the new arrangement betw…

Welcome Daniel Newman and Tony Miller of New Mill Industries! Royce, Daniel and Tony talk about everything gaming! In new to the collection we look at potential spiel winner Duos, kid's legacy game Zombie Kids, and the story driven Almanac: The Dragon Road. The news is all about a recent kickstarter scandal, and what happens when someone copies som…

Let's Party! What makes a party game? What's a good party game, or a not-so-good party game? Aaron is back! And we're talking party games. But first our quick thoughts on Mining Colony, New York Zoo, and Star Trek Missions. In the news we talk about some fundamental shifts that seem to be happening at Games Workshop, and Aaron shows off some of his…

Episode 55! Holy Cannoli, we made it! And to celebrate I'm joined by the one and only Caroline Black, The Dyslexic Gamer. Caroline has one of the most popular blogs on Board Game Geek, and we get to talk about everything Blogging! We also talk about 4 games we've recently gotten to the table: Dice Miners, Star Trek Missions, Dune Imperium, and Ever…

It's been a longer than expected unplanned break but we're back! It's the triumphant return of Definitely a Board Game Podcast. Joining Royce in this episode is Steve from Vancouver. Royce and Steve talk about their recent plays of Terraforming Mars Online, High Frontiers 4th Edition, and Durian. Followed by a kickstarter packed News segment. Jeff …

A last minute scheduling snafu means Royce is all by himself in this episode. That's never a good idea, so instead of having Royce do a full episode, we introduce the Accelerated Episodes! A short episode where Royce discusses a single topic. In this episode Royce talks about two of his favourite area control games: Diplomacy and Dominant Species. …

Welcome special guest host Tim, from the Board Game Hot Takes Podcast! https://boardgamehottakes.com/ Tim brings his extensive knowledge when he and Royce debate whether old games are objectively better than new games. But first, in New to the Collection, we look at a new game, an old game, and a game in between: Watch by Daniel Newman, Trajan by S…

Welcome this week's cohost Dan: The Game Master! In this episode we look at three recent plays: Obsession, Risk: Lord of the Rings, and Betrayal at House on the Hill. In the News we look at the new Wizard of the Coast release The Radiant Citadel. New to the Collection is...gone! Yup, we've replaced it with Shelf of Opportunity. It's your chance to …

It's episode 50! We're half way to 100! In this episode, Royce is once again joined by regular guest host Jeff. In QUICK THOUGHTS we discuss Anno 1800, Unmatched, and Mall Night Long! IN THE NEWS, you won't believe the line up of titles that Funko Games is putting out in 2022. NEW TO THE COLLECTION includes a couple classics and one new game. MAIN …

Welcome special guest host Joe Slack, author of The Board Game Designers Guide, and force behind The Board Game Designers Course. In Quick Thoughts, Joe and Royce talk about some recent plays, include Night Parade of 100 Yokai, recent kickstarter Voyages, and Iwari. In The News, how will Ravensburger buying Gamefound affect the future of Kickstarte…

Solo Games! One of the fastest growing areas of board gaming. Royce welcomes guest co-host, long time listener, and solo gamer Stuart to talk all about Solo games. In our Quick Thoughts we discuss Keep up the Fire, Skyline Express and Hardback. Of course, Marvel Zombicide is the proverbial elephant in the News room. New to the Collection includes d…

Welcome to Season 3 of Definitely a Board Game Podcast! In this episode Royce is joined by Jeff, and we discuss gaming with our families. What games worked and what games didn't? How do you introduce games to your non-gamer family and friends? Plus a TOP 3 Next Step games for when your family is ready to try something a bit more complex. Also, a ga…

Welcome to Episode 45! In this episode Royce and Aaron explore Trick taking games with a winter draft. What trick taking game will be the trickiest trick taking game of them all! Plus a potentially scary/boring event that is made better with games in Quick Thoughts, and still more games in New to the Collection. In the News, we look at Greater Than…

Happy Holidays! And that means we turn our attention to the most important part of the holidays, Gifts! Our recommendations for the best games at three different price points. Give the gift of gaming to your loved ones. Plus: Royce eats his words in Quick Thoughts, but makes up for it by introducing Aaron to a modern classic. In the News: A classic…

Royce owns about 900 games, Aaron has over a 100. That's a lot of plastic, wood and paper. What are the environmental impact of the board gaming hobby? What are the publishers doing to minimize this impact? Should we stop buying new games? No, the answer to the last question is no. We also talk about 4 new games in quick thoughts: QE, Ramen Fury, L…

Conventions are back baby! Welcome to Episode 42, Life, The Universe and Everything. We welcome special guests Kevin Carmichael and Jeff Fraser to talk about Protospiel North. What is a Protospiel? What goes into play-testing games? And what goes into planning a convention in the wake of Covid-19? In addition we discuss the recent Essen Spiel and G…

Velcome, to a very scary halloveen episode! Ok, it's not that scary but we do talk about the Queen City Collection Part 2, which is pretty scary, and we do talk about throwing a Halloween board game themed party in our main event. Plus a Top 3 things that scare us about board games, which leads to some traumatic insights in our deepest board game f…

Lordy, Lordy, Look who's Forty! We made it! Our 40th episode. In this episode we look to the future of Definitely A Board Game Podcast. We review the feedback from our survey, and plan for the future. Not to mention we announce the winner of our feedback contest! Plus all the usual, in New to the collection we talk about Terraforming Mars: Ares Exp…

Episode 39: History Sucks! In this episode Royce and Aaron have a little bit of a serious main event. Can, should, and to what extent should games based on history reflect current cultural sensibilities? But don't worry we don't stay serious for very long. We have our usual quick thoughts (all Royce edition), in the News we talk about an offensive …

Episode 38: The Evolution of a Gamer. When we started this podcast Aaron was like a new born babe in our hobby, and now he's been thrown in the deep end for a year and a half. In the Main Event we explore how Aaron's new found familiarity with publishers and designers has changed his shopping habits. Plus we in Quick Thoughts we look at Riftforce, …

Episode 37: Ni Hao from Taiwan! In a very special episode, Royce and Aaron sit down with Smoox Chen, the Manager of Taiwan Boardgame Design. We discuss the Taiwanese game market, manufacturing and designing in Taiwan, and much much more. Quick Thoughts are all about two Taiwanese games, YinYang and T-Rex's Holiday. In New to the Collection we have …

It's the special Olympics episode! But you won't find any of that athletic stuff here! No way, we are talking about the first inaugural (hopefully sponsored by IKEA) Board Game Olympics. Plus all the great stuff you already enjoy! Feedback has the return of Matt "The Podcast Police" Percy! New to the collection features a live segment from our firs…

Episode 35! Jeff's Back! You demanded it and we listened! Jeff is back to look back at online gaming 18 months later. Will we keep gaming online or was it just a means to the end? Plus we talk about 3 new games including Aaron's first Solo experience. We get Nostalgic and look at two up coming games based on He-Man, and The Masters of the Universe!…

Episode 34: Summer! So it's getting hotter and Royce and Aaron (mostly Aaron) are venturing outside to enjoy the beautiful summer weather. And, of course to do a little gaming. Our main event is all about what games work outside and what games don't? In Quick Thoughts, Royce and Aaron look at Sabotage at Lucky Llama Land, Botanik and some games of …

It's TONY BOYDELL Week! Episode 33: A trip to the Museum In this episode's main event we welcome Tony Boydell, the designer of Snowdonia and future purveyor of the Boydellian Museum of Games and Gaming. We also have some Quick Thoughts on Four Corners and Nunami. In the News, we discuss the troubled relationship between Grail Games and Reiner Knizi…

What are the Rules when it comes to 32 episodes! Let's find out. In this Episode Royce and Aaron talk about the rules, the good, the bad, and the dead?!? In Quick Thoughts, Royce talks about a good game, Aaron talks about 2...games. In the News, we discuss counterfeit games. New to the Collection, Aaron tries to decide if Royce needs a Warhammer 40…

It's episode 31: All about that Spiel! Royce and Aaron look at the 2021 Spiel des Jahres and Royce makes his (probably wrong) predictions. Then we double down by looking at the winners from the last 20 years to see if the Spiel is still relevant. Quick Thoughts is all about Unforgiven, Welcome To, and Azul: Summer Pavilion. In the News, we look at …

Welcome to our special 30th!!! Episode of Definitely A Board Game Podcast! In this episode we're joined by the Board Game Guru Steve Tassie from Snakes and Lattes. We discuss running a game cafe, teaching games, and much much more. But that's not all, Royce forgets what this podcast is about in Quick Thoughts, we disagree with the BGG Golden Geek A…

Welcome to Episode 29! In this episode Royce picks a fight with Tom Vasel, Aaron achieves one of his life goals, and we trash/discuss some games. First we have Quick Thoughts, where we talk about Happy Little Dinosaurs, Indian Summer, and the Matchbox Series of Games. Aaron tells us about his amazing achievement in The News. In New to the Collectio…

It's our 1 year anniversary! Thank you to all our listeners for sticking with us for our first year. As a special anniversary treat we have another special guest, Mr. Frank West, designer of The Isle of Cats! Plus a lot more: 1) In Quick Thoughts, we discuss Mini-express, Kanban EV, and Azul. 2) In The News, Royce gives his predictions for the Dice…

Episode 27! Royce and Aaron talk about everything! In our Quick Thoughts, we look at Hallertau by Uwe Rosenberg, Space Lunch, and Point Salad! We also have a bonus look at Penitent by Games Workshop. In the news we discuss: An incredibly useful website Board Game Oracle, Professional Wrestlers playing Wingspan, and the relationship between UNO, Piz…

Episode 26: It's Jamey Stegmaier Day! It's unbelievable, it's amazing, it's the hugest. Join us for episode 26 with Special Guest Jamey Stegmaier!!! In Quick Thoughts, Royce talks about three of his favourite Stonemaier games. In New to the Collection, it's all about Aaron as he adds 3 new games to his rapidly growing collection. And in the main ev…

It's our Silver Anniversary, Episode 25: Kickstarter Redux! In a packed episode Aaron and Royce discuss kickstarters they're considering and kickstarters they just don't understand. 1) But first, some not so Quick Thoughts as we look at Cthulhu Wars Duel, Canvas and Patchwork. 2) In the News, what is the connection between Mayday games and Toc Toc …

Episode 24: Polyominos, is it a real word? Or is it just something gamers made up to talk about Tetris? In quick thoughts Aaron discusses the Dice-placement game: Sagrada and Royce looks at the Roll & Write game: Three Sisters coming to kickstarter on March 9! In the news, the sky is falling! Asmodee bought Board Game Arena, Royce and Aaron discuss…

Let's talk about Ranks baby, let's talk about you and me. Let's talk about the good ranks, all the band ranks, that we see. Let's talk about Ranks. Yup, that's right we're talking about Ranking our games and a whole lot more. 1) In Quick Thoughts we discuss Fox and the Forest, Great Western Trail, and Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade. 2) Royce rants thro…

Welcome to a very Special Episode 22! Royce talks about his play of a new game on Kickstarter, and Royce and Aaron welcome game designer Thomassie Magniuk to talk about his game Nunami! 1) In Quick Thoughts, Royce and Aaron look at War for Chicken Island, Holi: Festival of Color, and Sagrada. 2) In News, Royce and Jeff got to Play the new Kickstart…

Welcome to a new season of Definitely A Board Game Podcast! It's episode 21 and we are super excited to be back! So let's get started! In Feedback, we discuss why we do a Top 3, instead of a top 5 or top 10. Surprise, we actually have reasons. :) In Quick Thoughts, we have a tri-pack of theme related games, let's see if you can guess the theme. In …

Welcome to our End Of The Year Spectaculario! It's been a weird year, both in gaming and in real life. To look back, Aaron and Royce are joined by our previous guests and friends: Jeff, John and Matt. Join us as we discuss: -2020 in general -The year in gaming -Our biggest surprises -Our biggest disappointments -Our expectations for 2021 And we fin…

Hey Everyone! It's the holiday season and this is our Christmas spectacular! So of course we talked about some games that have nothing to do with the holidays... In quick thoughts we look at Ducks in Tow, Fire!, and Upset. Some sad news as we look at the first few convention announcements from 2021. But actual Holiday discussions in our main event,…

Who collects the collectors! We look at our collections, and the fine art of game collecting. Starting with some quick thoughts about Tawantinsuyu, The Castles of Tuscany, and The Crew. In the news we look at the next stand alone Crew game, the next COIN game set on Mars, and a quick look at some red flags in kickstarter. In new to the collection, …

Welcome to Episode 17! Did you know we could read! That's right we're talking about games based on books, books based on games, and books that should be games. 1) In Quick Thoughts we discuss Troyes Dice, Wing Span, and a special surprise. 2) In the news, we discuss Aconyte Publishing from Asmodee and their new line of books including Gloomhaven an…

Welcome to episode 16 of Definitely a Board Game Podcast! In this episode, Royce and Aaron talk about the links between Board Games and Music but first: 1) In quick thoughts, we look at Fleet, On Tour, and Potion Explosion. 2) In the news, we discuss the future of gaming with Arcade1Up's Infinity Game Table. 3) New to the collection, Fierabend and …