Meeting New Gamers

" I really need to meet a new group of friends "

For this episode the duo of Ian & Jason  have been out there checking out all the possible ways to meet new friends/ gaming groups and have broken it down into a to ten list for you all.

whilst some options are pretty obvious their are also a fair few that you may not have even considered.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++  NEWS  +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Paul is also back with his faithful rubber duck Brian in the news shed to bring you all the news, crowdfunding campaigns & event information we think you need to know about. including but not limited too.

• Plan B Games
• Secret Squad by Gamewright
• Monuments by Martin Looij
• High Noon by High Noon Game Inc
• Crayne: Fractured Empire by Christopher Fielder
• Library Labyrinth by Dissent games

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you can also now watch our new video content on the Meeple Minded YouTube channel links down below.

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Transcript

Jason: 0:17

What's up guys, welcome to the Meeple Minded podcast, the podcast where we talk all things tabletop gaming. My name is Jason,

Ian: 0:24

my name is Ian and along with Paul, join us as we Bumble our way through the gaming industry. So pop the catalogue, grab a brew, and let's move on with today's episode.

Jason: 0:33

Indeed, indeed, so let's, let's start is Tuesday, if you're listening to us on release day, of course, which means it's new podcast day, how are you doing? And yeah, I'm

Ian: 0:42

not too bad. How are you?

Jason: 0:44

I am actually pretty good. I've had some, some. A pretty good week, actually, I've managed to play some games, believe it or not. makes a nice change really, doesn't it?

Ian: 0:55

Yeah, I'm looking forward to April onwards, when that's that sentence shouldn't be quite so outlandish.

Jason: 1:02

Yeah, it was nice. I mean, obviously, at this point, the first stage of our easing of lockdown has happened with the kids going back to school, and that seems to have gone okay. So far, I think. But who knows? Who knows? But yeah, so anything interesting happening with you at the moment?

Ian: 1:23

I am swamped with Digimon cards at the moment with my new 1.5 set finally really being released. Which brings us up to speed the first three sets now. We're Japan, so we're only two behind.

Jason: 1:37

Nice. Nice. So everyone out there should feel really privileged to the fact that you've given up opening packs of cards in order to talk about them.

Ian: 1:45

Yeah, exactly.

Jason: 1:48

So on that note, we can also say goodbye to me, and he's going to sign off and start opening cards. Is that correct?

Ian: 1:53

And

Jason: 1:56

other than that, have you had much going on in your life? I know you had something special going on with your college recently, didn't you?

Ian: 2:03

Yeah, I should be starting my placement soon in a few weeks, which will be really good was due to start last September. To give everyone a rough idea of how far along this has been dragging out for. And it's, um, I am the furthest behind in my college course due to all the delays. So that'd be nice. And with a job interview tomorrow as well. There's a lots of change going on in my life at the moment.

Jason: 2:26

Yeah, that's really good to hear to be honest. Yeah. So

Ian: 2:29

say why I sound quite so tired at the moment. Well,

Jason: 2:33

let's hope that we can continue to do this. But obviously, as we've we've we've personally discussed away from this, if you do need to take time off, I'm sure the listeners will understand.

Ian: 2:43

You know, college folks ready?

Jason: 2:45

Yeah, career and career and, you know, and life comes first, unfortunately, gaming always come second. But then again, gaming is our life. So anyway, we are here to talk about tabletop gaming. It's our little break from normal day life. So I suggest that we start doing just that. And for this week is a follow up to a discussion that we had, I think it was two weeks ago at this point where we were talking about how to introduce new gamers to go how to introduce non gamers into the gaming hobby. And we had a few comments with regards to or we had a few comments over on our social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Hint, Hint, wink, wink, go and give it a like and a follow. And one of the key ones that did come up was I was all very well and good. But what if I don't know anyone who's even remotely interested in gaming? And that is a very good point. And this is something that we planned to actually do this episode on anyway, but it has made it evidently more important that we do so. So yeah, what are we going to talk about today?

Ian: 4:01

Well, especially with the rule changes in that around the globe happening. Where do you go to find your games? You know, how do you get a game running? What does it look like? You know, what sort of things do you do? Did he do either start groups or find you know, find existing ones? So we decided we Chuck a list together and hope for the best. I mean, we plan this precariously properly. Now we have a look through and say how we find the best ways to stop finding all of these things.

Jason: 4:33

Yeah. Yeah. Couldn't couldn't really have said that better myself to be fair. So yeah, I mean, meeting new, new gamers, even finding new clubs can be really difficult. I think there's certain things that certain conditions that make meeting new people very awkward but even if that doesn't, the even if that isn't you, it's not always that easy to Go out and meet new people, it's not always easy to find new people to they are into the same things that you are. So we have done our due diligence. And we have found 10 different ways, some of them much better than others, but 10 different ways that you can meet like minded gamers, like yourself to arrange games, and maybe even make a few new friends.

Ian: 5:28

So, I will start with number one, and probably the most obvious and easiest one to do, we want one of our gaming groups as well. And that's either your FL GS, your friendly local game store, or a board game cafe or for game lounge. So if you're lucky enough to have one of these around is best you probably start your searches there. I know a few in our local area and I am going to name them just as a few shout outs. We're based in Crawley in the UK near Gatwick. We have the comic book shop in Crawley, and there'll be up and running with our own groups that we run as soon as we're allowed. And that'll be on Wednesdays, and but there are others. I know of at least two game stores down in Brighton not too far from us. There are still groups that run out of Horsham, and Burgess hill near us, you know, but the local game stores consist of dice alone, which is a board game cafe and the game store combined. And Daydream nation, which is a games game store, and they've comics, which is also got another game store, you know, all within our show area. So if you're willing to do the research and find the local stores, a lot of them even if they don't run groups themselves can signpost you on to other groups, as they often get signposted to where to get the games from back in return.

Jason: 6:51

Yeah, exactly. And, you know, it's just not something as common nowadays. But you will also find some of these stores. If again, as Ian said, if they don't have their own dedicated game nights, they will probably have some form of notice board, which might have a few clubs organised on it. And switching to the modern day version, a lot of these stores will have their dedicated social media pages as well, which can be used for arranging games and meeting new people as well. And some

Ian: 7:21

even have their own discord servers or comic book shop has their own, you know, which is where they can try and get people to join in and, you know, meet up and organise stuff that way as well.

Jason: 7:31

Yeah, exactly. So there's many, many ways that the, the friendly local game stores really are sort of trying to bring their communities together because ultimately that is best for them. It's best for business, it's best for the community. And that's what those stores stand for. So I think on all of this list, that's probably my favourite. That's my go to to say, if you want to meet new people, you need to get yourself to a friendly local game store or board game cafe.

Ian: 8:02

It's the obvious symbiotic relationship they need us to survive. We need them to find the groups.

Jason: 8:07

Exactly, exactly. So that is the friendly local game stores book and cafes and lounges. So we'll move on to number two. This one is a bit more specific, and that is universities, colleges and public libraries. Now, you know, all three of those are really great source for local gaming groups. It's where I started officially, back when I was a child,

Ian: 8:35

so about five minutes ago, then,

Jason: 8:38

you know, I started in my public library, that's where I found my first Warhammer 40,000 game and group that I joined. You know, moving on, when I got to college, there was a college group. But the one thing to bear in mind with this particular one is both colleges and universities may or may not be off limits to non enrolled students. But the libraries are for everyone, a public library will, you know, some public libraries will even hold board game nights. So it's really worth actually checking them out. And again, same as the friendly local game stores, if they don't run them themselves, the likelihood is they will have a notice board where local groups are free to go in and advertise where they are, where they meet what they do. And again, couldn't recommend enough going into your public library and checking it out? That the

Ian: 9:35

same with the universities and colleges as well. Even if you don't know you, even if you're not part of those things and can't attend official meetups with those with those locations, you might be able to contact people in the groups and find out if they have other meetups and slowly fought worm your way in free that way.

Jason: 9:52

Yeah, exactly. Okay, so that is universities, colleges and

Ian: 9:58

public libraries. Number three is another big one. And another fairly obvious one is social media is specifically Facebook. But you know, there are other groups on the others as well and can be found. But Facebook's got over 2 billion people on it, now, you're facing a safe bet that there's at least one or two local that would have groups somewhere or might have linked their pages within lots of the local pages, you know, something we need to work on more ourselves is once we're back up and running is advertising in all of the local different groups around here. I've even done it myself, or we're done wonderful things like, during the first lockdown over here, I posted a few groups and got support for actually cheering up the children by wandering around a spider man on my exercise walks, you know, some silly things like that. So these groups come out of nowhere. But it's a good way to find existing people and some of the bigger groups as well. I'm part of several board game groups, that we reach the hole all the way around the world. And you can get lots of information, lots of news and upcoming games and stuff. But they can point you in the right direction for more localised things as well.

Jason: 11:09

Yeah. And even on that, even if you're, if you are on one of those sort of global pages, as I know, both of us are, it doesn't, you know, meeting new gamers doesn't necessarily mean you have to meet them in in person, if you play on a PC or, or maybe even over zoom. You know, so many people are doing that at the moment. That's one of the perfect places right now to meet new players.

Ian: 11:35

A good example is my dijamin card game. They can't run tournaments, yet it's brand new garden card game that can't run proper tournament. So they actually started running webcam paced tournaments. You know, we set up a webcam, I hit overhead, and playing, you know, join up with another opponent, and he's doing the same.

Jason: 11:55

Yeah, exactly. So it's kind of the way the world has changed in the last year, isn't it really, but yeah, but yeah, Facebook especially, is one of the best. It's, I am happy to say to be completely honest, like when it comes to my actual gaming club, obviously, we're not running at the moment. But I run that solely off of Facebook, we don't have our own website, we don't have any sort of ads going anywhere else. It is all done on Facebook. And it's where it takes itself over. It's nicely we have a good attendance. And we've never sort of advertised anywhere else offer them Facebook, and yet we've got all those people turning up. So even if you're starting a club, something like Facebook is a really good place to start. Because it is very easy to connect with local people have similar interests as yourself. Okay, so that's Facebook and social media, we're going to move on now to possibly one of the most recognised names with regards to board games. And that is board game geek. Now, board game geek, as we all know, is a huge website. That is the go to place for any gamer that wants to know a little bit of information about a particular board game. But it has many other features on the website as well. And two particular features are going to be talked about today because they are dedicated to finding you new gamers and local clubs. So the first one, and this is probably the easiest way to find gamers is to go to their game groups section. And all the threads are sorted into country. And from there, you can easily filter it down to players that live locally. So that's a really good feature. The other one there is actually a feature on there called find a gamer which it kind of does exactly what it says on the tin. You simply type in your postcode and all gamers who have opted to be included into the postcode search will show up when you search. Obviously, if you want to be found as well, you have to opt in to that. So you never know you might even just be a member on board game geek and then you'll just randomly get a message from someone else who's local looking for a game. So yeah, board game geek is actually a really great website for finding like minded gamers because they're all there. They all love gaming. And you never know you just might find that person who you want a game with locally. It's kind

Ian: 14:49

of the holy grail for all things gaming To be fair, like early news. It's not quite so easy to find early news on there, but it's still doable. Everything else on there is incredibly eye opening.

Jason: 15:03

Yes, yeah, definitely.

Ian: 15:06

So this leads us on to number five. And it can be a generic thing. But we're gonna go on to a specific one for the UK anyway. But we have tabletop magazines and their online gaming directories. We're lucky enough in the UK to have dedicated tabletop magazines, specifically having one called tabletop gaming, we have been actually to they also even run their own convention, we will I have been lucky enough to go to their first one. We and I think we missed the second and the pandemic killed the third. They have both a digital and a physical print. They do lots of reviews, promo cards for games and all sorts. But one of the best pages on there is they have a directory in the back of the magazine to do with them local game stores, any that have opted in or phoned in let them or emailed in that sort of thing to add to their lists. But they also have an online and searchable board game club directory online as well. So you type in your location, it will display bogging groups near you drives in your town and name instead of the postcode is it seems to work a little better on this site.

Jason: 16:21

Yeah. And I can actually attest to the online directory, especially on this one. My club has been registered on tabletop gaming magazine's website now for probably the last two years, and in the year build up to us, obviously closing down for the lockdown, I had at least four or five brand new players that turned up and they found us on the tabletop gaming magazine website. So again, this is kind of a double whammy. Because if you're looking for Gloop, it's a really good place to try and find players and groups. But if you are a group, organiser, for example, it's also really good place that I would recommend you getting your club listed, it's totally free, you do it all on their online section. And they also print that in the back of the magazines itself as well. So really, really great one that I absolutely love. The the tabletop gaming magazine directories. Okay, the next one is an app. And this is actually a pretty new app, it was only really launched in 2018. And it's called game for ga m f o r. And this game, this app was actually designed and developed by gamers, for gamers, with the sole intention of creating communities. So it can help you find groups, it can help you find events, it can help you find stores, all related to tabletop gaming. And I say tabletop gaming, because it is dedicated to tabletop gaming. Whereas something we will talk a bit about a little later on in the list is not dedicated. So it's still pretty small at the moment. However, it does seem to be getting bigger and better by the day. So that's one I'm definitely keeping an eye on. And I will say it has helped me in the past where I've been taking a break at work in an area that I'm not too sure about. I don't know where I am. I've been on there, I've had a look. And it's told me where a local game store has been. So I've been able to go and just look at some games for a bit. So yeah, that's, that's game

Ian: 18:42

four. Number seven is meetup.com. So as it says in the title, it's a generic website and app that's used for, you know, meetups, all varieties, that does include board games, and does have a few cool features on it to help you find the obvious one is course searching board games and via location can bring up results. But you already may have made a group and you can try and help other people find you as well. I've even got experience of finding another group on this. The scary thing on this one is we had a group that used to meet up at the local church hall every week on the the parent heal board games banner, and found out there was a meetup group that met on the same evening in a pub, like literally two minutes away. So we tried to sort of we made the effort to go and visit them before I meet, I think and tried to coax them to come down and two hours. So it helped build the groups that way do.

Jason: 19:40

Yeah. And from what I remember, it did actually succeed in getting some crossover. On the weeks that they weren't running. And with the weeks that we weren't running, we would go down to them as well. Yep. So yeah, really surprising one, that one because as you said, you use that particular example. And I had never thought about meetup.com before for that. So yeah, really, really good one. Okay, this one is. This one's called role for group. And it's another website, it's very much like meetup.com. But this one is actually specifically designed for gamers. Now, gamers can use role for group to arrange to meet up with other gamers and to organise regular gaming group activities, it is free to join. But users can pay for the additional account features, we're going to focus on the free side of things. So when you create your account, you can enter your board game geek username, and it will actually pull in your game library, which is it to be honest, that's an awesome feature. Because then if, you know, if you do find another player that you want to talk to, you're actually able to see what kind of games they're into what kind of games they own. Because let's be honest, if if they only play games, that you're not going to be interested in vice versa, it's probably not going to be a particularly great meetup, if you ever do get to that point. So yeah, that's an awesome feature. For me, the free account also does allow you to search for gamers near you, and then be able to connect with them. So it's not like one of these things, I was a free sign up, but you can't actually message anyone. So that's really good. Another thing that you can do with the free account on there is actually to create an event for others to attend. So maybe rather than messaging people individually, you want to actually host an event. Obviously, Once COVID is over, that's something that a lot of us will be doing again. And this could be somewhere that's actually worth doing that to host yourself an event, it will actually email all the local gamers to that event, and let them know the event is going to be happening, where it's going to be happening and when it's definitely a site worth checking out. And to be honest, I think I will also be using this website going forward. And that is roll for group.

Ian: 22:15

So on to number nine, it's probably mining Jason's Least favourite on the list. But a bit like the social media side of things, it's got such a huge subscriber base, there's no way we could not include this. And that's read it read it has an answer for everything and a person for everything. And board games are no different. There's over a million subscribers on there. So there's gonna be likely that you find someone within a reasonable distance. And it's quite often on there people put up posts to try and find people in their local area. So what's to stop you from doing the same thing?

Jason: 22:47

Yeah. And if you're into random conversations about random things, you can also do that while you're there as well.

Ian: 22:56

Yeah, there's a lot on that website that we can't mention on here.

Jason: 23:00

Yeah, family friendly and all that. So that's kind of a disclaimer on this one, we do recommend read it. But just be careful which sections you go to.

Ian: 23:09

Yeah, there are better options to start with. Yeah,

Jason: 23:12

yeah. That's probably my least favourite on this list. But yeah, that it's worth bearing in mind. If you've tried everything else read it could well be worth just sticking the post out saying where you from what you're looking for? Being very specific, obviously, that you're looking for tabletop gamers. Otherwise, you could get some very random replies. Okay, so our final one on the list. And I'll be honest, when I when we were putting this list together, we found the top nine pretty quickly, number 10 was actually very hard to come by. However, we did actually do, as I said, we did our due diligence, we did our research, this one did pay off probably a lot less than the others, but it paid off nonetheless. So this one is actually an app, and it's called game tree. Now, when you're on there, it does appear to be a bit more popular amongst the digital gaming community. However, while I was doing the research for this, I did actually return some results. So this could well be an option for those of you wanting an app based solution, or basically just looking to explore all of the other avenues that we've mentioned, to grow your community. And yeah, I think when I was, when I was searching on this one, I found maybe two people in the local local area. And when I say local on this one, we were talking sort of 2020 kilometres away. So yeah, it's probably one to watch for the future. Right now, game tree is probably the least likely to return your result but is probably higher on my list to try them. Ready. So yeah, that is that actually concludes the list. I mean, that's 10 different, very different ways, in fact, to try and find your year to try and find new gamers now out of all of those, and what would you say, is going to be the best and most likely to end in new friendships or new game group?

Ian: 25:21

How can I not suggest the local game stores? It's by far, the easiest option, they sell the product at the end of the day, they quite often have a gaming space as well. And they, you know, their business models require gaming groups really to survive, whether they're installed in house or, or not. So they would go will go out of their way to help the group survive and keep going. And to do that you need more people. And in return, the people come back, you know, you if you give that symbiotic relationship of looking after the people that look after you, you're never going to run out of ideas.

Jason: 25:59

Yeah, I think if if I had to pick just one, that would easily be my decision. However, soon as you have said that one, I will take my second option, which would be Facebook. I have had exceptional results with regards to Facebook, I am now very good friends with a few tabletop gamers in the States. Now, obviously, time differences means we don't play games all that often. However, it does happen occasionally. And you know, I am very good friends with them. You know, play playing games fairly regularly, probably once every couple of weeks at this point. And as I said, as a club organiser, Facebook has been absolutely fantastic. For me, another one, just clicking on the social media, Instagram is good. Obviously, it's not really for meeting new people. However, if you're posting up pictures of games that you like, and using hashtags and stuff, you will get people finding that. So it'll be another way into the

Ian: 27:07

Yeah, industry,

Jason: 27:08

it might well be, you know, a weird way around, but it's an option, it is definitely an option. I'm not a huge user of Twitter, I don't really understand how it works all that well. But that could potentially be the same thing. Using the correct hashtags should get you the attention you need. But yeah, Facebook 100%. I back that up almost as much as the friendly local game store. Yep. So I think we will leave it there. I do want to chuck in a very honourable mention, though. And that was to expand on something that Ian actually said earlier, he mentioned gaming conventions. Now, obviously, you a lot of us have to travel for gaming conventions, and it's not almost, it's not guaranteed you're gonna meet someone from your local area. However, it is a arena full of tabletop gamers, just like you chances are you're probably talking to them anyway. Maybe it's worth actually finding out where these people live, maybe it's worth staying in contact with those people. Because you never know, you might get online games out of it. So yeah, just just sticking that in there as an honourable mention, I

Ian: 28:27

think I'm going to expand on that and take it from gaming conventions to all conventions. I have joined mmcm movie comic Media Expo groups, fi nearly many years. And, you know, they have lots and lots of splinter groups for absolutely everything under the sun. And you can meet people from all walks of life. I've met lots of people on the Marvel cosplay from but then from that, you know, a lot of us cross our hobbies across each other. And yeah, it's been quite interesting to see how many friends and people I've made over the years through that as well.

Jason: 29:03

Yeah, yeah, that's a good call. Actually. Yeah, that would never have really suggested that personally. But again, you've had far more experienced than I have. So sometimes it will work you will find new friends and gamers in the strangest of places. I think you

Ian: 29:23

remember a lot of these people, you know, we share the same sort of hobbies. So even if you're not directly into gaming, you might like your Star Wars or Star Trek or Marvel or something. So you might suddenly find that there are more people interested in other things that then suddenly she gained an interest in board game or find something interesting that way. Yeah.

Jason: 29:49

Okay, guys, well, we're gonna close this section down because that is our list of basically 10 ways for you to meet new gaming friends. Have you tried any ways that we've talked about or found a better way than and basically something that we've missed, we would really love to know because we as gamers are always on the lookout to meet new people and find new people to play games with and and sort of really expand the community. So, yeah, let us know on any of the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, just search for Meeple Minded Media. You can check us out on our discord group as well the links for that are in the description of this podcast.

Ian: 30:33

There is always the one thing to remember that there is proof that it's not always worth meeting people in new new gaming arenas over to our newsman pool.

Paul: 30:45

Oh, stop hitting my arms. You know for Well, that's the arm. I've just had my jab in. But I'm pretty sure ducks don't need the COVID vaccine. Yes, even rubber ones. Anyway, we played your favourite game this week, didn't we? Yeah, that's right. quacks of quedlinburg. I wonder why that is. Although I'm still not convinced you're allowed to put your head in a bag for your ingredients. Why? Because your pot never exploded. Not once in all those games we played. I want to rematch and I want you wearing a blindfold. No, I'm not trying to be kinky, right. I think these new sections have been a tad long these last couple of weeks. So let's try and shorten today's No, I don't think I'm sending people to sleep. That's just you know, go and grab yourself a chalky hop no while I read the news. Make sure you leave me a couple this time. As the day seems to be once again flexing its muscles by acquiring the Publish up Plan B games Plan B games was founded by Sophie gravel in 2016. And now includes publishers next move games, pretzel games, and agate spill between them. They have brought us formidable titles such as as all the century series Great Western trail and reef Sophie gravel commented, I am delighted to see the plan B games family become part of the great asmoday team. Their tremendous network will offer our collections a broader distribution base, as well as a bigger community of players worldwide. We will continue to strive to publish games with the same care and attention to detail that's always been our driving force. Our goal remains the same to offer unforgettable playing experience both through the depth of our gameplay and premium quality materials. Stefan Carvel, CEO of the asmoday group added the plan B group has demonstrated year after year, its creativity and sense of aesthetics in creating highly successful games such as all which will naturally find its place among our pillar brands alongside the likes of preterm and Ticket to Ride. We are very pleased that Sophie and her teams with whom we have developed a close partnership through the years we'll be joining our group and participating in the development of our games catalogue. Sushi go make a game right have announced their latest game coming to our tables soon. They are asking us to figure out our friends from our foes in a new social deduction game secret squad apart a board game for three to 10 players, a secret squad splits participants into two opposing teams, the yellow side and the red side and challenges players to find out who is on their side. By the game's end, players will be able to provide various hints as to which team they're loyal to by answering a series of questions with a response that corresponds to their side's colour. The game begins with players selecting between the available character tokens before receiving a scorecard informing them whether there'll be on the red or the yellow team which they must keep secret. Of course, the course of three rounds, players take turns to draw question cards which players then all simultaneously answer using their chosen character token. The question card will show two separate questions, one for the red side, one for the yellow side, with players secretly answering their team's question. Much like 20 questions, players can give a thumbs up or thumbs down on set by placing one of their tokens on the appropriate side of the question card. After two more question cards are answered in a similar fashion to party games by four players then use their fellow players answers the device whether they are on the same squad or not. Once everyone has their answers, liars then simultaneously point to whichever player they're most confident is on their squad. Players then reveal which side they were really on by showing their scorecard points are awarded to those players who successfully picked a member of their squad after three rounds of a game have been completed. Secret squad ends and the player with the most points is named winner secret squad was co designed by Arnaud Stein Bender, co creator of last year's adventure game cloud age and trivia board game and more This switch check who are both previously worked together on the drawing party game Starling apart from sushi go and secret squad game right is known for Publishing Co Op titles such as forbidden Island forbidden desert and forbidden sky. Secret squad is available right now a retail price of seven pounds and 15 pence or 990 $9 from the game right website. Amongst continued uncertainty around mass gatherings in 2021 tabletop gaming live 2021 originally set for the 25th and 26th of September, alley pally in London has unfortunately been cancelled tabletop gaming live 2021 joins a number of other events having to cancel because of the continued public safety threat of the Coronavirus. Claire Ingram, publisher of both tabletop gaming and Miniature War Games magazines comments on the decision is simply not possible to offer an experience that really reflects the enthusiasm and love that the community has for its hobby within the likely social distancing restrictions. A huge part of the weekend is all about meeting up and playing games and it is very unlikely that we will be able to provide that in a safe and satisfying way. cancelling the show is a tough decision. But we owe it to our readers and the community as a whole to put on the best show we possibly can. We would love to think the hobby could return to normal by September but with the restrictions that will still be in place at that time, it won't be possible to do it justice in 2020. The usual live show was replaced with virtual tabletop gaming live or weekend video interviews play throughs and announcements totaled over 37 hours and 72 individual videos. Those with tickets to the event will have their tickets rolled onto next year by default, although refunds are available, but never fear as they are hosting a virtual spring showcase later this month more info events section and we're on to crowdfunding. And our first game today is monuments it's for one to four players, it takes 45 to 90 minutes to play is aimed for players aged 10 years and up and ends on Friday, April the second the Standard Edition is 34 pounds or $47 Deluxe Edition is 60 pounds or $84. Or if you want to splash out the Super Deluxe Edition is 86 pounds or$120. And the only main differences between the editions are the quality of its components is your goal to not only lead your civilization but to construct your monuments take on Machu Picchu to call the Colossus of Rhodes or the pyramids as the first player who builds all five layers of their monument will trigger the end of the game but only the player with the most victory points well when conquer lands produce goods populate train military units, build buildings, move your units upgrade your action cards trade attack other players draw quest cards and of course build your monument gameplay and monuments flows very easily. You either play one of your 10 action cards and execute it single action then discard it or pick up all previously discarded action cards and add them to your hand at game end points rewarded for your monument workers areas controlled military power resources controlled upgraded cards and uncompleted and completed quests. Each player has a score modifier their own deck of bonus cards and an ability in addition to the starting position of their civilization in order to make every game a totally new one. Next up is high noon and it's a two to four players or even more when some of the expansions hour to two hours of play. Same for ages nine and over. It ends on Sunday April the fourth It's sweet water standard pledge is 38 pounds but$52 bullets and brandy pledge is 70 pounds and $97 metal money pledge is 94 pounds or $130 with a difference being the added or included expansions. Well howdy partner sweet down in Sweetwater Gulch has found itself in the midst of chaos again when a row Colonel and his man attempting to break an environment out of jail I mistaken for federal officers attempted to trap the Leroy gang inside the Sweetwater bank in the midst of their highest gunshots alert the sheriff and his deputies one taken a bullet to the gap before he can grab his pistol or a small wall band of laquan. Hunters tracking the colonel decide now is the time to have their vengeance against those defiling their sacred lands are known as a turn based tactical board game Santa's fictional turn of the century wild west state of Saratoga, players send their posses into battle to set all the scores the only way they know how gunslinger draw from your unique posse decks to equip your characters with the skills, abilities, attacks and defences they will need to get ahead loot payload crates whenever possible to gain the advantage or Have your enemies and collect gold for killing or dealing damage on your turn. The player with the most gold at the end of 12 rounds wins the day or players can continue the fight until one posse remains and is declared the last party standing. Lastly, in crowdfunding, we have crane. fractured Empire is one to six players takes 45 to 60 minutes to play. It's for ages 12 and up ends on Thursday, April 8. There's only one pledge level and that's 27 pounds or $37 crane fractured Empire is an epic strategic high fantasy deck building card game for one to six players set in the world of crane game has over 100 unique high quality illustrations and over 200 cards in the base set. In crane fractured Empire the construction of a strong tech during gameplay is the main focus of the game. The cards provide a type of in game currency called revenue, which allows players to purchase ball or better cards to add to their decks which they can eventually use to overpower their opponents with relentless attacks. The game also utilises some same time play roles and has much depth and complexity crane, fractured Empire features eight unique factions that their players code loads can recruit a domain conquering the other nodes. each faction has its own strengths and unique talents. In addition, each game is played with randomised factions, which leads to many different combinations of play styles, Lords will have to come up with a strategy on how to win on the fly. While utilising the factions that are available to them for purchase and adapting to the moves of their opponents. The game has been ferociously developed and played tested for over four and a half years to ensure immaculate balancing and individual flavour to each faction. And we're on to events now. As mentioned earlier, tabletop gaming magazine are hosting a spring showcase over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of March. Among some of the games that will be on showcase is library Labyrinth designed by the all female team from our local indie publisher descent games. based here in Sussex library Labyrinth is a cooperative game for two to five players and takes approximately 45 to 60 minutes to play. Players are trying to escape from a library which has been overrun with monsters in order to defeat them they must call on the skills of famous fictional female characters and historical figures from the books around them and make use of their unique abilities. The game is due to hit Kickstarter in the summer with the delivery of the game expected in December 22. In the meantime, you can sign up for updates over at library labyrinth. com that's all one word or via their social media pages. I was indeed privileged enough to play a very early prototype of the game on tabletop simulator not too long ago and even at that very early stage the game looked incredibly promising, as well as library Labyrinth, the spring showcase we'll also be bringing you videos from a wealth of creators, designers, publishers and more giving you something to look forward to in 2021 and the rest you should know so sing along with me. Thursdays is Worthing board gamers and Lewis is all game cafes night chatting and gaming to go check out their socials for more details Mondays as always join Jason in and cruelly gaming community group with more of the same on Discord. So from the new shed this week. Look after yourselves. meeples stay safe. Keep those dice rolling and the card shuffling. And we'll be right here for you next week. So it's goodbye from the duck. And it's a goodbye from me. Oh, crumbs.

Ian: 43:47

And thanks for that poll. You know we love you Really?

Jason: 43:52

That we do we do? It's we love to joke about it. Don't worry. It's what we do best. Because let's be honest, we're not very good at bumbling through through all this rubbish are we but we can take the Mickey out of each other quite well.

Ian: 44:08

Yep.

Jason: 44:10

So have you got anything else you want to add today and talk about how do we let these lovely listeners go about their their day now?

Ian: 44:19

I think let people go about their day and see what happens.

Jason: 44:22

I hear kind of man and I you're kinda man than I am. But I will follow Ian's advice. Thank you very much for joining us guys. It has been a pleasure. Please do come back and join us next Tuesday where we will be finishing off our discussion about Flashpoint fire rescue. I know. I am excited about that. Are you? Are you excited to talk about the expansion side of things in?

Ian: 44:48

I don't know where you get that idea from?

Jason: 44:52

Yeah, the game is a bit rubbish in it. Really? I mean, yeah, we got away with lying about it last week. Why are we going to lie about your second week.

Ian: 45:02

Yeah,

Jason: 45:02

that's we'll leave it at that guys. Thank you very much for joining us. We will see you next week. Tata for now, game safe and we'll see you soon. Goodbye

Ian: 45:15

Bye bye