The Ascent of Board Games

With everything that's going on right now, it hardly seems important to post up a podcast of five guys rambling about games, but as the late, great Freddie Mercury sang, the show must go on. So here's our first episode recorded since the coronavirus lockdown began. Sorry about the audio quality - between the lower-quality equipment we had to use and some problems with Zoom's recording process, I'm just glad that we have a more-or-less audible episode. 
There's no particular theme to this show, other than "how we've been gaming when we can't get together with other gamers." We start with board games, of course, but also take side trips into computer games, role-playing games, and escape rooms, so hopefully you'll find something here that will help. We promise that next episode will be a little more traditional for us, assuming that the sun hasn't exploded by then. In the meantime, please stay safe. We're here if you want to talk. (Seriously.)
In this episode:
Boy, do we have opinions about things. (This should come as no surprise to frequent listeners.)
Joe has lost all sense of time. (We all have, but his case seems worse.)
Here are a bazillion links to sources of lockdown-friendly gaming and entertainment:
Tabletop Simulator
Tabletopia
Board Game Arena
Yucata.de
Forgotten Waters Remote Assistant
The Escape Game
SquonkLand
Breakout EDU
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Okay kids, it's time for a good clean fight as we talk about our favorite skirmish games! This is the last episode we recorded before we all went into lockdown, so next month may be a little different...but we'll see how it goes. In the interim, stay safe, wash your hands, and try to get some games in (Tabletop Simulator is a lifesaver in times like these).
We discover that the "father of science fiction" may also have been the father of miniature wargaming. (Here's a link to a nice article on this book.)
We talk about a copyright controversy that wasn't really FASA's fault.
PSA: Please don't confuse these Crunchberries with these Crunchberries.
Mike just wants somebody to love the Tau, Brian just wants to talk about Malifaux, and Jayson just wants a giant, blue... 
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Hi folks! We were originally planning to do some April Fools silliness for this episode, but given everything that's going on right now, it didn't really seem like a good time. So relax, stay at home, and listen to us talk about Hidden Traitor games. Oh, and wash your dang hands. Yes, again.
We start the episode with a weird television tie-in game, and end it with...well, a weird television tie-in game.
We learn that, once again, Oink Games came up with a clever idea that was then re-used in a much more commercially successful Western game.
Brian, as usual, shoehorns in a game or two that just barely fit the episode criteria just because he wants to talk about them.
We break Mike.
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Happy March! It's time to discuss drafts, and not the ones that may be sending winter chills through a not-quite-sealed door. Nope, this is about picking the best options for you from a hand of cards, and then passing your unwanted dross to your neighbor.
Richard Garfield shows up at the beginning and the end of the episode
We talk about the early history of drafting in card games, as well as an interesting set of draft-specific Magic cards that Joe couldn't remember the name of (it was Conspiracy).
Frank saves a classic game from oblivion, and gets a thank-you from the designer (although he remembers the wording a little wrongly).
He also tells us a little bit about the Ancient Times before BoardGameGeek and his own contributions to its early days.
We discuss The King's Dilemma, which is barely a drafting game at all but which we wanted to talk about anyway. And here's an entry from Bruno Faidutti's blog about its relationship to the cool mobile game Reigns.
Mike is too sick to be on this episode, but Joe assures us that he is definitely not dead and buried in the backyard.
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

It's February, and we're releasing a new episode, just as we planned to do several months ago. Speaking of planning things in advance, this month we're talking about programmed action games! Join us as...
We discuss a smartphone app for a very old game (with a very old-school website)
A discussion of Yaquinto's Album Games requires Frank and Brian to explain to the younglings what an "album" is...
We drool over Lego Super Robo Rally and River Dragons Giant and Mechs vs. Minions (which, contrary to what we say in the episode, is still available for $75!)
We have an interview with another game designer...but it's just Frank.
Joe creates a bizarre hybrid of two great game designers.
Apologies for Frank's audio - it sounds a bit like he's caught in a matter transference beam, but we promise he's fine.
A few other links to things we mention that you might find interesting:
The World War I Gotha bomber
Realmspeak, for all your Magic Realm automation needs
Baba Is You
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

Bonus episode time! The amazing Rob Daviau (@robdaviau on Twitter) returns to tell us about Return to Dark Tower, which will be live on Kickstarter on January 14 (less than a week away)! This promises to be an amazing, high-tech game combining two great design talents (Rob and Isaac Childress of Gloomhaven fame) with a substantial chunk of technological wizardry and a healthy dollop of nostalgia. Rob also drops a few tidbits about Pandemic Legacy: Season 3 (!) and Cthulhu: Death May Die as a bonus on top of your bonus, because we like you that much.
We apologize for the lousy sound quality here; we had a lot of technical issues getting the interview to record at all, and wound up going with about our fourth-choice solution. You can still hear all the good stuff, though. Make sure to swing by Restoration Games' website so you don't miss the Kickstarter when it goes live next week - this one is going to be a doozy!
And, as always, comments, questions, suggestions, and iTunes reviews are always appreciated!

Happy New Year! As we start 2020, we take some time to look back at our favorite games and gaming-related events, moments, trends, and other stuff.
Frank calls an item on Brian's list "the best game ever made"? (At least today.)
Jayson shares a story of gamers being excellent to each other (or at least to him).
Brian talks about a bunch of stuff, including Dicebreaker and Malifaux Third Edition.
Mike (of course) talks about Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Again.
Keep an eye out for some additional content over the next week or two - we each have some honorable mentions for 2019, and we'll also have another interview with Rob Daviau to talk about a very exciting new Kickstarter that will be launching shortly!
As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!

As the holidays draw near, it's time for a smaller and more intimate podcast crew (also because Mike and Jayson were both traveling). Sandi returns to help us discuss solitaire games, for those times when you are just sick of dealing with people.
We discover two engravings from the late 17th century that show the first evidence of a formal solitaire game. It's even older than Cracker Barrel!
The mere mention of Vlaada Chvatil's name renders us briefly incapable of saying words.
Sandi asks what Charles Darwin has to do with Robinson Crusoe. (Answer: islands, we think)
In return, we ask Sandi about the worst game Frank has ever made her play.
As always, we appreciate your listening and wold love to hear your comments on any or all of these sources, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!
Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.
Thank you for listening!