This episode is jam packed with exciting board games and has a reference to clotted cream - that’s right - it’s the scone episode! A tasty delicious dessert for your ears full of rich indulgent cardboard. What’s especially exciting is that we’ve got a little bit of everything for everyone - from very light to very heavy, all pretty great in their own ways so if you’re looking to enrich your collection - this week is definitely full of good recs. Enjoy!
If you have personal experiences to share about any games discussed in this episode or any topic that’s dear to your heart - we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: elaine@nopunincluded.com
On to the timestamps:
4:00 Audience correspondence - Historical Wargames and MILDA MATILDA
A realisation as I listen to this: I knew a few teachers when Harry Potter was coming out, and their reactions were along the lines of “OK, it’s a bit rubbish, but at least the kids are reading”. But that didn’t turn into kids reading lots of stuff: instead a lot of them read more magical school stories, and often fanfic in that particular setting. (Which is fair enough, but limiting.)
And I think the new-gamer/licenced-game experience may be the same. If I or Efka and Elaine, or I suspect most people here, play Star Wars Deckbuilding, we’ll think “OK, it’s a zippier version of Star Realms”. We have some idea of boardgaming rules-space and we can say that it’s this mechanic with a bit of that one, and it’s quite like this game but not very like that one. But a new player doesn’t know that: they know they played a Star Wars game and they like Star Wars so that’s great, but they don’t know they’ve played a deckbuilding game and other games in a similar vein might be X and Y. They have no guidance beyond the IP and the publisher. If they’re really lucky they’ll look up Caleb Grace and find Marvel Champions and LotRCG.
Beyond that, I don’t think many non-gamers realise what makes mechanics fun. Mention a game and the first question is what it’s about rather than what you do. If a subject is boring, that’s instantly a turn off. If you tell someone a star wars game they like is actually quite a lot like a train game, they are not going to appreciate it. They’re unable to separate the enjoyment of a game from its theme, which can only be acquired by experience.
I suspect Wingspan has sold to a lot more people who want “a bird game” than ditto “a set-collecting game”. There are better set-collecting games; there may not be better bird games.