Tag Archives: Board Games

Carnagecast 28: Ben T. Matchstick and Library Gaming

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In episode 28 of Carnagecast, Ben T. Matchstick, Dungeon Master at large, comes on the show to tell us about founding a tradition of gaming in the local public library, and bringing the tabletop hobby to the next generation. At Montpelier, Vermont’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Ben brought comic books and tabletop games into the mix. In addition to running Dungeons & Dragons for children, he taught them to run it for their peers.

The motivations range from passing on a beloved hobby, to providing social encounters for a generation predisposed to video games, to bringing youth in general and boys in particular back into the library, to encouraging reading. As Ben points out, everything that happens at the table is life lessons: courtesy, cooperation, patience and more. With the advent of the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, young gamers have a great opportunity to learn that ultimately any game they run is belongs to them. If they’re having fun, they’re playing right. On the other hand, as for older gamers, a website like https://www.wsmcasino.com/ create a welcoming environment because it offers a user-friendly interface and engaging content that fosters a sense of community, ensuring everyone can enjoy the thrill of gaming.

Ben closes with a challenge to game masters to bring their gaming hobby to the public library, getting more people, children and their whole families, involved in the hobby. “It’s important that kids can be heroes again and create a game of their own.” Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:49 — 36.0MB)

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Carnagecast 24: David Cheng of the Schenectady Wargamers Association and Endeavor

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In episode 24 of Carnagecast, we catch up to David Cheng, then still basking in the hubbub of Carnage in Wonderland. David recaps his weekend spent participating in DipCon 2011, then tells us about the Schenectady Wargamers Association and their many events through the year, especially Council of 5 Nations, held every October in Schenectady, New York.

For Autopsy of a Game, Chuck, Robert and Rod gather round the table to talk about Endeavor, a semi-abstract colonization title from Z-Man Games in which players establish trade routes to other parts of the globe to build up the non-specific European powers they each represent. Robert makes no bones about his love for Endeavor as he frequently — though not today — puts the question: “Endeavor: great game or greatest game?” While initially enjoying it, Chuck found the appeal wore off as the dominant strategies emerged from repeated plays. Robert counters that the random mix makes it a game of opportunity. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:50 — 21.7MB)

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Carnagecast 23: Betrayal at House on the Hill Actual Play, Part 2

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In episode 23 of Carnagecast, the Dan, a Dan, Hunter, Jake, Toby and Tyler wrap up their game of Betrayal at House on the Hill. Missy realizes deep in her gut that Madame Zostra has betrayed them all — and then stumbles upon a revolver and dynamite with which to resolve the problem. As the heroes race to exorcise the house of malign powers, Professor Longfellow finds himself scrambling for his life as basement rooms fall away into the inferno one by one. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:53 — 31.9MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 5: A Dark and Stormy Night

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In extrasode 5 of Carnagecast, Munk, Rachel, Sarah and Tyler drive home in the driving rain from Spring Meltdown in Lyndonville, one of the Green Mountain Gamers’ game days held around Vermont. How do you pass the time during a two hour ride from Lyndonville to Burlington? Talk about what you did during the day, of course.

Conversation gets into some of the new games played — Nefarious, Power Grid: The First Sparks, Lords of Waterdeep and more — the subtleties of certain personalities in the local Battlestar Galactica cadre and whether it’s okay for caribou and mammoth meeples not to be scaled to each other. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:07 — 44.4MB)

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Carnagecast 21: Betrayal at House on the Hill Actual Play, Part 1

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In episode 21 of Carnagecast, the players assemble to take on the new edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill, published by Wizards of the Coast’s Avalon Hill imprint, as discussed in episode 14‘s Autopsy of a Game. Toby recommends not blinking in the statuary corridor. The Dan realizes he’s really playing Short Round. Then he does something pretty spectacular.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:35 — 33.5MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 4: Escape from PAX East

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In extrasode 4 of Carnagecast, Sarah and Tyler talk about their PAX East 2012 experiences while heading north to Vermont. They talk about what they did and didn’t get to do, the games they played, the scale of PAX East and the thrill of that much energy and buzz filling a convention center.

It turns out that both Sarah and Tyler are getting to that stage in their lives where they’re more appreciative of handsome, well-made furniture than they are the latest game releases. Furthermore, Sarah was most interested by the Chevrolet display in the exhibition hall than anything else . . . Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:01 — 37.6MB)

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Carnagecast Extrasode 3: On the Road to PAX East

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In extrasode three of Carnagecast, Sarah and Tyler are on the road to PAX East 2012. Driving down Interstate 89 from Vermont to Boston the night before the convention, they talk about what they’re looking forward to check out this weekend. Aside from wanting to scope out the tabletop gaming area and pick-up play opportunities, Sarah is astonishingly well organized with a whopping four panels marked in her Guidebook app, while Tyler can’t remember the name of the single panel he’s interested in.

Conversational diversions include the comparative mental acuity of Euro- and Amerigamers, the inclusion of transgender individuals in video games and whether an audiologist can distinguish modern sculpture from giant stompy robots. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:19 — 15.5MB)

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Carnagecast 20: Nonchalant Gnome Gaming Society and Android

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In episode 20 of Carnagecast, Interview with the Gamer travels west across Lake Champlain to talk with Chuck Henry of the Nonchalant Gnome Gaming Society in Plattsburgh, New York. Chuck tells us about founding the Nonchalant Gnome gaming society, some of the methods and techniques to making a public gaming group welcoming to newcomers, growing the gaming scene in upstate New York and their participation in the Play in Public campaign to make tabletop gaming more visible to the public eye through teaching moments.

In Autopsy of a Game, Alex and Dan discuss Android, the science fiction noir detective game from Fantasy Flight Games. Players take on characters investigating a crime in the city of San Angeles, as well as wrestle with their personal demons. Alex’s enjoyment of the game has led him to GM it at Carnage two years running with no plan to slow down. Dan is a fan of the game as well, citing in particular the deep world-building found in the rulebook and flavor text of the game’s components. Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:08 — 75.2MB)

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Carnagecast 19: Battlestar Galactica Actual Play, Part 4

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In episode 19 of Carnagecast, we conclude the Battlestar Galactica actual play series featuring the Battle-all-stars with the not entirely shocking revelation that ended part 3. It only gets tenser from there. After the game, the players chat a bit about how the game went and the variants in play, such as 2 Cylons for 7 players and the personal goal cards.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:03 — 46.7MB)

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Carnage Noir Now Accepting Game Submissions

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Listen up, youse mugs. There’s a new racket in town: Carnage Noir. This thing of theirs is a good, old-fashioned game convention. And they want a taste of your GMing action. Board games, miniatures, whatever your specialty is, there’s a place for you at the table.

Head over the GM Sign Up page to get your game’s details in. The deadline for getting entries in the convention book mailer is July 27th — and that’s a lead pipe cinch.