I don't have a proper theme for this show so I'm throwing it into my Q&A series even though I'm the only one asking the questions. However, I'm very happy to have one of my favorite guests back on the show – board game developer and graphic artist jim pinto (yes, he's like k.d. lang and e.e. cummings).

Longtime BGB listeners will remember the inimitable Mr. pinto as a special guest on my first Stories of Self-Publishing shows and I've been trying to get him back since. Here, we talk about game design, the industry and his work for Alderac Entertainment Group, who are entering the board game market big time. They're local heroes in Southern California (as the guys responsible for the brilliant CCG "Legend of the Five Rings") and I'm glad to see them get into the kind of games we talk about on BGB. I hope you enjoy our freewheeling chat – I sure enjoyed having it.

As I mention on the show, please feel free to follow me on Twitter (bgbabylon), link to be on Facebook or LinkedIn and please become a "Fan" of Boardgame Babylon on Facebook so I can get one of those cool unique URLs for the show.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

P.S. Yes, that sandwich is jim pinto. It was hard to interview him without getting hungry but I managed it.

Boardgame Babylon is back with a new volume of the Q&A series. This one is the Q&A session I recorded with award-winning game designer Dan Verssen at Gamex 2009. Dan was our Guest of Honor at the recent show and he was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions about his history in games, his ludography, life in the game industry, and some of his design process. I really enjoyed his comments and I hope you will, too.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Show Notes

Strategicon     Dan Verssen Games     One Small Step 

Wow - took me almost a month to recover from that silly April Fool's Day joke. But now BGB is back with a new show talking about three new/newish games.

·         Giants by Fabrice Besson (Asmodee/Matagot)

·         Playing Gods by Benjamin Radford (BallsOut Entertainment)

·         Roll Through The Ages by Matt Leacock (FRED Distribution)

I also announce the lucky winners of the BGB contest for cool Michael Schacht stuff from Orccon 2009. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to everyone that sent in an entry. This was the most popular contest yet for BGB and it's inspired me to do another one soon.

I'm back from GAMA (where I didn't record any shows) but I do have some good material for a couple more shows, one archive show that should see the light of day soon and even - finally - a "Favorite Games of 2009" show with one of my favorite BGB occasional contributors joining me on the mic.

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Boardgame Babylon returns with a new episode in the In Depth series. We've covered Power Grid, Ra, Agricola and Caylus. Add to that list one of the most elegant designs in game history: Rock-Paper-Scissors. Join me and RPS strategist Rob Pirone for a discussion of the game's mechanics, strategy, and many variants. Rob promises to teach you how to win every game of RPS you'll ever play.

A word of warning: I recorded this over Skype and it would appear that there is some bug through the VOIP that makes it sound like I am breathing heavily whenever I am not speaking. It's clearly not me using a sub-standard microphone for this one podcast but an actual bug in Skype. They apologize for the excess noise.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Okay, here's a show that I recorded before Orccon 2009 talking about three fine new games from recent days:

*  Ghost Stories

*  Wasabi

*  Gem Dealer

Also, be sure to send in your entry for our exclusive Michael Schacht contest. You can win one of the following:

*  A copy of the Strategicon exclusive Zooloretto expansion, "King K."
*  A signed copy of the Spielbox Zooloretto expansion.

Send in your entries ASAP - we'll take them through the weekend (until March 22). The contest is available to everyone WORLDWIDE.

And for more information on Orccon, Gamex or Gateway, please visit: www.strategicon.net

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

...Sheylon

As promised, here is the Q&A session I recorded with Michael Schacht at Orccon 2009. We sat down and let the audience ask Michael questions about his history in games, his ludography, hits and misses, and some of his process. I hope you enjoy his interesting commentary.

Be sure to listen for the way to send in an entry for our exclusive Michael Schacht contest. You can win one of the following:

1. A copy of the Strategicon exclusive Zooloretto expansion, "King K."
2. A signed copy of the Spielbox Zooloretto expansion.

Send in your entries today. We'll take them until March 21th (something I conveniently forgot to mention during the recording...) and then pick a winner.

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Orccon 2009 is at a close and I missed a chance to do much blogging on Sunday due to a heavy demo schedule. I showed Hogwarts House Cup Challenge, Heads of State, Middle Kingdom (x2), Supernova, Municipium, Draco Mundis, The Club, and Roll Through The Ages. Luckily, Devi Hughes was nice enough to demo Titan for me. This left me no time for gaming and less time for blogging.

However, I'm editing the Michael Schacht Q&A for posting shortly and should be giving away a copy of the exclusive Strategicon Zooloretto expansion (entitled "King K.") to one lucky listener. Watch for the show later this week. I have material for at least one additional show, if not two (plus one show I recorded last week but didn't get a chance to edit).

The convention was a lot of fun, very crowded and I got a very warm reception to all games I showed. I guess it was all the advertising I did but all but one demo went off and they were nearly all packed to the point of turning people away. I did a few extras to get in some of the folks who really wanted to learn the games (notably: Municipium, Hogwarts House Cup Challenge and Roll Through The Ages). I'm exhausted for the work week now but at least I had dozens of folks that appreciated the chance to learn games instead of reading the rules themselves and it was fun to see so many of them come back with the games they had just learned in hand, having purchased it in the dealer room. That's a nice feeling - knowing I helped introduce them to something they will enjoy.

Thanks for downloading and - in this case - reading Boardgame Babylon.

It's getting late here on Saturday night at Orccon. I'm heading home tomorrow afternoon but before then, I'm getting some games in tonight and some demos tomorrow morning. This evening, I had another shot at Diamonds Club – a Rudiger Dorn tactical shopping game that I thought was just-okay at BGG.con. I'm not sure I've changed my opinion but I liked it a bit more the second go-round with everyone knowing the rules. We had to abort the game due to some tournaments, including my participation in a Der Elefant im Porzellanladen event. Okay, okay – it's Bull in the China Shop in the U.S. but I truly hate that version (a note I shared with M.S.) because the original German version was so lovely. I was horribly targeted because I'd played the game a few times and it gave my friend Paul (who was quiet about his one play of it at Essen a few years back) a chance to sneak in and win on the strength of one huge 40 point scoring round.

After this, I bolted over for Michael Schacht's other major new release, The Golden City. This one is a building game with various bonuses available from building from the ports on four sides of an island (each with different kinds of territory) through the fields and into the city for big bonuses. There are scoring opportunities every turn depending on where you place your shops and also which goods you have acquired. Players build by acquiring territory cards and if someone takes the pair you like, you can pay to grab it instead (and back and forth). Nice game and one that plays in about forty-five minutes.