We're Not Wizards - Tabletop Board Game Reviews

Ronnie Renton is no miniature in the world of wargaming. (see what I did there) As the owner of Mantic Games, him and his team have continued to bring gamers a range of exciting and different tabletop skirmish games, and he joins me to chat about the return of Dungeon Saga in the form of Dungeon Saga Origins. We chat about Mantic, his day to day running of the business, selecting the right talent, a bit about Armada, and we even mention my local game store, Accent Gaming. https://www.manticgames.com/news/dungeon-saga-origins-design-mechanics-and-differences-interviews-and-more/ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/manticgames/dungeon-saga-origins-your-adventures-start-here https://www.manticgames.com/games/armada/featured-products-armada/ https://accentgamingdunfermline.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you would like to support us then please visit and interact with the links below. Please give us a rating o

Joined by the delightful Justin De Witt to chat about hot drink thermodynamics, starting up your own game company, the attraction of Kickstarter and selling an evergreen title. I hope you enjoy the show. LINKS of NOTE https://firesidegames.com/ https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/9624/fireside-games https://www.facebook.com/FiresideGames https://www.instagram.com/fireside_games ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you would like to support us then please visit and interact with the links below. Please give us a rating or review on your podcast catcher of choice. Also, please let someone else know about our show, as recommendations are wonderful things. OUR LINKS OF NOTES ( https://linktr.ee/werenotwizards ) Apple Podcasts | Our Blog, Reviews, Previews and Thoughts | Our YouTube Channel Our BGG Guild | Board Game Geek Page | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Buy Some Merch Stay Safe, Roll Sixes, Mak

The notification ping sounds for the fourth time as you stand in front of the mirror in your third outfit change of the last twenty minutes. The bed and floor look like someone set off some kind of glitter bomb in the room, if the glitter was a mixture of chainmail, leather armour, boots and swords. You move your foot slightly to steady yourself and stand fairly heavily on a six sided dice, comically showing the number one and laughing at your critical fail. This causes you to fall backwards, grab the blanket on your bed and pull the entire contents on top of you including the once again pinging phone. It lands gracefully and predictably on your face and you're able to read the previous four sent messages. They're short and concise.   We're in the Tavern, where are you?  We're going to the basement, Where Are You?   There's some rats in here, WHERE are you?  THERE'S A HUGE RAT HERE, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU???!! You sigh, because as everyone knows, you take Roll P

  Unknown to a lot of you, most weeks I play an ongoing campaign of Blades in the Dark. We've been playing for well over a year with an established set of characters that have grown into their roles as we have gone from quest to quest. Our games master is nothing short of incredible, keeping us on the path where we need to be, pushing us in the right direction when required and being incredibly quick at ad libbing situations when we have quite clearly pitched when we should have yawed. It makes for a nice bit of escape. They have notes and even record audio logs to keep themselves right. They put up with absences and delays and me being an absolute arse. So Kris, if you ever read this, let it be known that you are a complete legend.  It is because of the level of professionalism required from a RPG runner, that I've never felt comfortable just diving in and trying  to run a scenario myself. I would be afraid that I wouldn't remember everything I was meant to say or forget a

  So let's start with a confession. I've always been impressed with the way the Jamey Stegmaier runs Stonemaier games. From his initial success with Kickstarter, to his continual support of the community, his fundraising, his openness to talk about his own life and experiences. Like every endeavour, there's been missteps along the way and not every game that is part of the Stonemaier portfolio can be considered as much of a classic to me as Viticulture or Scythe. However, he continues to be one of these dependable voices trying to do the right thing. When Wingspan became a thing I was one of the first people to interview the designer  Elizabeth Hargrave.  , we spoke about her game before it literally stormed everywhere like a tidal wave and went on to sell over 1.6 million copies. (You should give it a listen, Elizabeth is a fascinating person to speak with) Now four years later, I finally sat down and try to figure out what the fuss was about. I'm not expectin

As you are exposed to the board game and tabletop hobby, there's a chance at some point you'll visit a local game club. If its anything like my local wonderful gathering, you get an eclectic mixture of games and those who partake in them. The neoprened table of the wargamers, with their metal cases and foam cuddled miniatures raring to do battle across the stars or across a muddy field. The board gamers in a constant state of either trying to decide what to play, or trying to learn the latest shiny and new, while others argue that maybe next time they could have this conversation before game night. Those that play RPGs are away from the main hall, upstairs in their own room for the sake of everyone's internal monologue.  It's not because we don't like them. They don't smell any more or less precious than the rest of us. It is just that everything is turned up to eleven. There's a tendency for loudness and over expression. Look at it this way, someone missed

We don't exist in a bubble. Our differing experiences shape our opinions and life views, and that's a wonderful thing. Trends effect our decisions, new ways of thinking change our perspective. Comparisons will always be made by what we used to do in the past compared to what we have done now. Board games naturally feed off each other, as designers can't help but be subconsciously influenced by what they see, read and play. I've personally never seen the sense in the ultimate big list comparison of all board games. Games are generally designed and sold to facilitate making the passing of time easier on us and also ideally make money for the creator. Whether that be through forcing us to guffaw with laughter, or spend seven minutes staring at the same space deciding whether to place a meeple or not. Games have an objective, an aim that they intend to fulfil. So it's important when I'm writing about them to take that into account. Pocket Paragons aims to fill that