G*m*s Magazine Podcast Channel

And here we are again, in the RPG Room discussing if games should come with campaign material or just the rules. A lot of games come with a lot of information. Spells, equipment, combat, rules for travel, rules for talking, abilities, skills, bonuses… And some games come with setting and campaign information and others don’t, but do they need them? Should games come with some sort of setting information? Should that information be in a separate book? Do you care? Vickey Beaver, Jim Pinto and myself talk about it.

Pixel Tactics was released by one of my favourite companies, Level 99 a while ago to great success, but not enough because Level 99 deserve a lot of success. They have consistently released good quality games of a variety of styles and genres, including Roleplaying Games, card games and iPad games. Pixel Tactics is a game for two players that plays in about 30 to 45 minutes and offers a heavy gaming experience with tons of tactics (hence the name) and super cute and well crafted characters with a retro 8bit style art direction. But does the game stand up to scrutiny? Michael and Max sat down to have a go and find out! Hope you enjoy the show!

Smash Up, published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2012, has seen quite a success for a card game that, by just reading its description, shouldn’t work. It sounds totally bonkers. Mix two decks of totally themes that you wouldn’t think of mixing, like Zombies and Fairies, give each Zombie and each Fairy an ability to do something and then send them forth to conquer bases that will give you points to win the game. It does sound very silly and the rules make it look like a very easy to play game. Also there are a fair number of expansions to make the game last even longer. But how does it play for the first time? We’re about to find out! Hope you enjoy the show!

GenCon is for many of us Europeans a Mecca of gaming we’ll never get to see. Though I hope to someday. The biggest four days in gaming, as the slogan aptly announces, has been going more than 45 years. From humble beginnings it’s turned out to be a true giant. And deservedly so. This year it also comes with a very interesting twist that’s made it very exciting for even more people: The re-launch of Dungeons & Dragons, the game that started it all. Wizards of the Coast has this year made a huge effort to bring the excitement to the floor and regain the mantle that it lost quite a while ago. And I hope it works. I truly do. But of course that’s not the only thing that goes on. The Ennies are there and, literally, thousands of games people can join. Vickey Beaver and Jim Pinto join me in this most excellent episode to talk about GenCon, how to manage the schedule, what to do and, just as importantly, what not to do. Hope you enjoy the show!

Iello released Titanium Wars at Spiel 2013 and the theme and looks were enough to get me very interested. Then I found out it was also a resource management game and also a card game. I like all of that. The subject? You must expand your galactic empire to win the game. You do that by developing technologies, building armies and blasting the other players out of the sky. In a nutshell, a winner for me. But in reality how does it play? Well, this episode will tell you because we sat down around the table and played it so we could tell you how good it is! Hope you enjoy the show!

Online conventions are a logical step in the socialising scene for a lot of hobbies. Probably any hobby, to be honest. The possibility of getting “together” with other people who share a passion and talk, play and share ideas together. That is exactly what Tre’ Grisby thought when he decided to create L.U.G. Con, an online RPG convention that’s been going on for the last three years and gathers a few hundred people every time it’s on air. But what does it take to create an online games convention? Exactly how does it work? I have never been to one, so I’m totally clueless and was really happy when Vickey Beaver asked Tre to come along and tell us about it. This interview was hosted by Paco Garcia Jaen, Vickey Beaver and Jim Pinto.Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Core Worlds was published by Stronghold Games in 2011 and was designed by the – rather talented – Andrew Parks. If you just follow its description, Core Worlds probably won’t interest you very much since there are *a lot* of games that sound like it: Deck builder, Science Fiction, Space Exploration. I know, yawn. But this game is special. I didn’t believe it when Michael Chamberlain told me, but this game is special. So when in G*M*S Central we decided to record some podcasts with our favourite games, games we’ve played time and time again and love to bits and we’d take to a desert island, Core Worlds was brought forward by said Michael with the speed of thought. That was pretty fast. So here you have it, a special episode with a review of our favourite game. Enjoy the show! Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Recently we had the enormous pleasure of interviewing Martin Vaux, one of the co-designers of Lords of War and at the same time we played the game so we could tell him, to his face, what we thought of it. Lords of War is a strategic card game for two players (a four player mode is also available) in which armies battle each other on a grid that must be used to maximise the power and abilities of each card. Every army has its unique and distinct members, from soldiers to lancers, generals, berserks… and using them correctly will gain you advantages to defeat your opponents. Explaining how to play this games takes the best part of 10 minutes. If that. Extremely simple rules that never get in the way of the strategic nature of the game and make it accessible for new players right away. Or that’s the theory. As new players, we had to have a go and tell you what we thought of this game. Hope you enjoy the show!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Sertorius is the latest offering from Bedrock Games and has been launched, much to everyone’s surprise, without any Kickstarter influence whatsoever. And it looks pretty amazing. No, really. It does. After the publication of Arrows of Indra, the company devoted all their efforts into creating a game with an unique approach to magic and offer the players the possibility of playing immensely powerful characters with a system that doesn’t derail gameplay. Needless to say that sounds pretty good. Maybe too good to be true, so I got together with Brendan Davis, the owner and person behind Bedrock Games and threw quite a few questions at him. Hope you enjoy the show!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Lords of War was released to much acclaim at Dragonmeet in December 2012. And I mean to much acclaim because that very next year got the UK Games Expo award for Best Strategic Card Game, along with Lords of War: Dwarves vs. Lizardmen. Expansions have been released and the game is gathering momentum and strength in numbers of fans with some promising future ahead of it and its designers. Partly because he lives round the corner from G*M*S Magazine and partly because he’s a truly excellent fellow and nice as few, we invited Martin Vaux, co-designer of the game and one of the people behind Black Box Games so we could ask him about the game, past, present and future. Hope you enjoy the show!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

TRIX is a words guessing games from Porcupine Press, an UK-based company with some interesting and friendly titles in their portfolio. Interesting travelling games are always a good thing to have around. Something light enough to be taught in just a few minutes, accessible enough to cater to a wide audience and fun enough to be fun to play several times. That’s what TRIX attempts to do. The three decks of cards and simple and dinky little player boards, which are just big enough to hold the player tokens, snuggle neatly inside a tin-box and fits in any handbag and quite a few pockets. But does it play well? Cesare, Max and Michael got together to play this game for the first time and tell us what they think!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Athlas-  Duel for Divinity is the offering that Golden Egg Games has currently going in Kickstarter. A game in which the players take on the roles of god-like creatures who must uncover the secrets of creation and must learn to manipulate time and space in order to gain the abilities needed to create armies and survive the challenges laid ahead by the Athilian Council. Golden Egg Games has produced some very good looking, and just as good playing, games in the past and this project makes the company look like they’re upping their standard of quality for their productions. The images look totally gorgeous and the design seems solid. But what does it really have to offer? I got together with Elad Goldsteen, the man behind the company to have a chat and ask him about the past, present and future of Athlas: Duel for Divinity and the company in general. This is one to watch out for! Hope you enjoy the show!

Once again we got together to discuss things roleplaying. I was joined by Jim Pinto and later on by Vickey Beaver and we decided to discuss the merits of good writing vs. game design. When is about roleplaying games, both indeed matter, but which one matters most? Clear, well written rules or atmospheric settings? As you can imagine, we all had something to say about that… But what do you say? Hope you enjoy the show!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+! Thank you for your support.

Hive, has been out for quite a long time now and it is a very popular game. Well balanced, deep, tons of replayability and fun. Very good fun. One only has to look at the list of reputable publishers that have put their weight behind this game to realise that, despite its unassuming looks, this game is as solid as the pieces that form it. And let me tell you they are *very* solid. So did this game need expansions? Did its core mechanics need any sort of additions for gameplay’s sake? Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray sat down at the table and played them for the first time so they can tell you all about it! Hope you enjoy the show!Remember you can follow us on Twitter and Google+!

Luchador: Mexican Wrestling Dice is the  design of Mark Rivera and brings to the table the feeling of a wrestling match on the table. And it does pretty well at that! Released at Spiel 2013, the game was a sold-out in days and it’s been well received. Simple to play, silly fun and lots of dice rolling make a compelling experience that’s just fun. Not a lot of thinking, not a lot of arguing… just fun. Each player represents a wrestler and the dice will determine the moves for each player and the result of the roll will determine who lasts the longest in the ring. With a team play game available, swapping places with your friends to roll the dice really seems to double the fun. Now Backspindle games, the publisher behind the game, has taken onto Kickstarter to fund a second edition of the game with more werstlers, more gameplay and more fun. I spoke to Mark Rivera and Dave Brashaw to find out more about this new edition of the game that should be gracing your collection very soon. Even sooner if you b

Academy Games and its charismatic leader are well known for producing historical games that are, as it happen, easy and fun to play without compromising on historic accuracy. In this case 1775 deals with the the start for the American Revolution after Britain imposes unwelcome new taxes. Yeah… that was me being understating. Anyway, there was a lot of fighting and a lot of people died and the French were there and it got all messy and unpleasant. So Academy Games made a game to teach us about the horrors of war and the cost it carries. And yet they manage to do that in a way that doesn’t put you off from it. At least that’s been our experience with other of their games. We had to try 1775 and have a go to see how it plays for the first time. And now we’re telling you all about it! Hope you enjoy the show!

Dr. Hrubec is a party game from The Czech Board Company that was released at Spiel 2014. One of the cool things about this organisation is that they get together with designer in the Czech Republic and when they find a game they think it’s worthy, then they gather the funds and publish it. In 2013 they released Infarkt, a game that tests your healthy lifestyle and, if you’re unlucky, you get a heart attack. And then you lose the game, of course. In Dr. Hrubec you take the role of a doctor who has to organise an area of a hospital, choose patients and see if you have the skills to cure them. If you do, you get points, if you don’t, they die and you lose points. Yeah… it’s pretty grim and very adult. With really funny and sometimes offensive artwork, this game requires you to have a rather thick skin. But is it fun and a good game? Well, in this episode we tell you all about the experience of playing this game for the first time! Hope you enjoy the show!

Splendor is described as a fast and addictive game of chip-collecting and card development. An with good reason, it is very, very addictive, though not sure about the fast bit… people with paralysis analysis might find this one slowing them down a bit. However the game is totally awesome and fantastic even on a first play, which is pretty impressive! However, don’t take the last five lines of text as proof. Listen to the podcast and find out why Michael, Max and Cesare enjoyed this little gem that should be in anyone’s collection! Hope you enjoy the show!

Steampunk has become very, very fashionable in the last few decades. Although the concept has been with us for along time and novels with technology that had the flavour of what we currently know as Steampunk have been numerous by favour authors, it was only in the 80’s that the term Steampunk was coined by K.W. Jeter when he was looking for a term to works of novelists James Blaylock and Tim Powers. Fast forward to mid 00s and it became more and more popular to the point that now is actually “cool”. But is it a genre of anything or is it just a veneer of flavour thrown on top of something else because we need it to tell the story? Jim Pinto, Vidkey Beaver and myself have a chat about it! Hope you enjoy the show!

Hobby World is he biggest boardgame publishing company in Russia. Last year they went to Kickstarter with Septikon and succeeded (disgracefully I didn’t back it. Shame on me!) a game for two players that looks very much like a retro Space Invaders sort of game. Now they are back in Kickstarter with a different game. Hollywood; a game in which you win by creating the most successful Hollywood blockbuster. With some seriously fun and lovely artwork, fast gameplay and simple rules, this game promises a lot and Hobby World wants to bring it outside of Russia and for that they’re in Kickstarter funding this game. I had a chat with Nikolay Pegasov, the designer and asked him a whole bunch of questions about the game, how it plays and why people should back it. Hope you enjoy the show!