Live Q&A with Mike DiLisio

0:15 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

0:52 Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Wow. Wow. Wow.

1:25 Hey there everybody. Good morning. It's Mike Delisio here with you for a live Q&A on this lovely Wednesday morning. It is 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and I am midway through my morning coffee. I have one a day. One a day. One coffee a day keeps I don't know what it keeps away. Um, jitters. No, but you get jitters from coffee. Doctor doesn't keep the doctor away. Sleepiness. There you go. Keeps the sleepiness away. Let's find out if I'm coming through loud and clear. Uh, have not seen a new comment since I've gone live, so hopefully I am coming through. Good morning, Mike. Yes. I don't know if that is to me, Mike, or to one of the many mics in the chat. We've got Mike Heler in the chat as almost always, which is nice. We've got Mike Bartelli, but we do have some other people here.

2:29 Looks like Monica's in here. Hello. Hello. Hello. Good morning to all. And Mike responded to my coffee comment. So, I assume that means that I am coming through with the clarity that you all deserve on this fine mon Monday, Wednesday morning. I told you I'm only halfway through the coffee. I do not know what day it is. All right. Well, um, let's see what's happening this week. I'll I'll give a little time for the questions to get going here. All right. Well, today we've got this live Q&A going. Um, Wednesday. Hey, we've also got crowd surfing today at 2. So, um, make sure you come back for that crowd surfing.

3:16 We've got reviews going up. Of course, we always have reviews going up. Tomorrow morning, we've got the news live at around this same time. So, make sure you come check out the news. And the other thing I want to mention is Dice Tower East. Look, folks, it's getting really close. You don't want to miss. If you've been hemming, especially if you've been hawing, stop. No more hemming. No more hawing. Let's go. We would all love to see you there. Um, we've got so many things. As always, got our fantastic library. This uh this convention is a welltoled machine. Now Camila has got this thing on lock. So you don't want to miss out.

4:07 I am usually well and I am again kind of responsible for setting up the dexterity games area. I don't think you'll find more and more varied and more exciting dexterity games than you will find at Dice Tower East. That is something that is very unique to that convention. Um, and it we have this whole huge curling thing. So, I have no idea how that thing is getting set up. But let me tell you what, I hope it's not by me because it probably won't be pretty. Let's concede to loss of vanity and put on the specs. All right, I'm going to come down and take a look and see if we have any questions as of yet. Doc Chills, good morning, Mike. I love the goon Boston scally. That's this right here.

4:55 Do you plan on getting any more? Well, um yes, I do. I have to kind of pace myself. I they they just uh recently dropped two um in the Guinness line uh the brewery from Ireland. And so I got both of those. I got one that is the the kind of the eight panel or the Yeah, like this. And then I got one that's a little bit more of their cap. I tend to wear those less than this style, which is my favorite style, but I got both of those. Um, I have a few others. Um, it's a great brand. I really think they have good quality hats. They're not cheap, but I think that you get value for the money as long as you take care of them.

5:45 All right. Hello. Hello. Have you watched or read Project Hail Mary? I uh have not I have not watched nor read Project Hail Mary. Uh not because I don't have an interest necessarily. Uh I enjoyed The Martian quite a bit. That's the only other um that's the only book I've read by Andy is it Weir? I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. That would be my guess on the name. Um and I saw the movie first, read the book after and really enjoyed it. I thought the the book is written very cinematic cinematically. Um and so the movie was you know very close to the book because again it's written in such a way. I was thinking when I read The Martian that it reads almost like a Michael Kiteon novel because Michael Kiteon I think is also someone who writes very cinematically a lot of times when you're well of course many of them turned into movies but when you read them even ones that haven't been turned into movies you can feel like oh I see what this I have a feeling what this would be like as a movie. So, I will likely almost almost assuredly watch it on streaming and if I really enjoy the movie, I'll probably go back and read the book.

7:06 What are your other once a day indulgences? This is probably my only once a day indulgence. Um, unless you consider bathing an indulgence. I don't bathe, I shower. Uh, but I do the way I shower, it's an indulgence because I'm not a short shower taker. I I'm not a pop in pop out kind of guy. I can't do it in a shower. Hot water. It really uh it it helps me kind of come to the day. A lot of times when I have my best ideas, they're in the shower. And thankfully, I keep a uh Sharpie in the shower at all times so that if I have a particularly good idea, I just write it on the tile. Uh that way I don't forget it. And um it looks kind of daesque art.

7:53 Um looks like a subway in my bathroom, which is what I'm going for. That's the aesthetic I'm looking for is subway bathroom. But no, I think only only coffee. That's the only once a day thing that I do.

8:17 Good morning, Mike. Have you played Final Girl series 3 and or four so far? Far? Are those hard to review because they're basically five versions of the same game? Okay. Um, I have played some of season 3. I've not played any of season 4, I believe. Unless I I don't think I played any season 4. Um it's a thing where I feel like there's been a lot of coverage um on the channel. Uh I have done several uh Final Girl playthroughs and reviews and it shows up on top 10 lists a lot. I know Camila is also a huge fan of Final Girl. I think Joey as well. And so it does get covered a lot. Now, that's not to say that we won't cover some more uh from season 3 or season 4. I don't know that. I don't have that in my uh short-term plan at this point, just because, as I said, I I have covered a lot of Final Girl. Uh maybe there'll be a particular feature box that that strikes my fancy, and maybe I'll talk about that, but it's not really in my um plan at the moment.

9:30 Josh Franklin asks, "Now that you're back in Florida with the rest of the crew, do you find it more difficult to play solo games?" Um, no, not really, because uh when I was in Indianapolis, I also had a really good group of uh gaming friends that would would play games with me a lot. So I I was even then playing more multiplayer games than I was solo games. I have time, you know, I have time on weekends. I have time after work if I'm feeling uh, you know, particularly inspired. Um, I still have plenty of time to play solo games. I played a solo game this weekend. Um, so uh yeah, no, it doesn't make it harder necessarily. Um, I can still make it happen.

10:28 This is a good question that I'm not going to be able to answer. My go-to question, I'm sorry, I'm lift I have to lift the question up so I can see it all just because of the way this screen is that I've got here. Uh, if an experienced gamer had been away from the hobby for 10 years, what's the first game from the last 10 years you would show to them? That's a real I mean it's a great question, but I I don't know because I'll think of something and then I'll inevitably think of something that would be better. Okay. But if if they're experienced, so they're someone that played a ton of modern hobby board games. They've just been out for the last 10 years. Then I'm starting to think, what is something that has happened within hobby board gaming within the last 10 years that really wasn't there um 10 years ago or before? And so you're thinking about what innovations have happened. Um and so what what what's I mean there are a lot more legacy games now. I mean you did have legacy games 10 years ago for sure. Um, but they seem to be a bit more prevalent now. Um, yeah, this is a tough one. I maybe maybe I'd show them Return to Dark Tower because it's this huge lavish production. Cooperative gaming has become much more prevalent. um although it was certainly around but it's become super super prevalent now to the point where a lot of times when someone is

12:00 introducing a game people will ask is this is this co uh competitive or co-op uh I don't think that question was like on the front of mind that 10 years ago or so so big production cooperative game pretty heavy a lot of tech going on um but I mean I don't know there's so many probably better answers to that question quite honestly That's the one that came to the top of my head.

12:35 Have you had any Kickstarters/gamefounds that you hesitantly backed that greatly exceeded expectations? Yours was mosaic. Greatly exceeded expectations. Okay. that I hesitate. Well, I'm going to say the answer is no. And the reason why I would have said yes to this three years ago, um I have significantly cut back on the amount of games that I back. Um like probably tenfold uh have cut back. Uh there's a number of reasons for that. Uh space is a big reason. Uh finance is another reason. access to the Dice Tower library is another reason. Um, but so now when I back a game, it's usually going to be one that A I've done research on, b more often a publisher or a designer that I'm very familiar with and have a pretty good sense that I'm going to be happy with this game. Um, see something that the theme just knocks me completely out. And in that case, if I don't know the designer much or the publisher much, I'm still going to do research as much as I can before I back it. And if there's not enough research out there, I probably won't back it. Um, right now, the games that I tend to back the most are games that are not going to be readily available to me, especially

14:05 here in the United States. So I'm backing more uh projects from other parts of the world whether it's uh you know South America or primarily Asia. Um so those are the ones that I'm kind of focusing on just because I know that after the project funds you may not be able to see it again very easily.

14:29 Move. No, I didn't want to make you smaller. I just wanted to move you. There we go. Is Delicio Italian? If so, are both sides of your family Italian? It is indeed Italian. My father's side of the family is Italian. My dad moved uh to the United States from Italy when he was 18. Um I still have a lot of family in Italy. Um my mom's side of the family is Norwegian. So, Italian/Nwegian, but Delissio is definitely a a an Italian name. Uh the DI is really the the the thing that indicates that because that's a you know an Italian preposition meaning from or of. If it was a Spanish name it would be de uh dissio uh which is the same preposition just in Spanish rather than in uh Italian. So yes, um and um yeah, I I am very much looking forward to going to Italy.

15:30 If I skip questions, please don't take it personally. I'm just kind of going through. Mike's talking about the slush puppy. I got to tell you, I'm not with you on that one. Um these could be a little flashy, right? Uh, but that one is like a bridge too far for me. It's a slushie too far for me. But hey, Mike, I think you could pull it off. I don't know if I could.

16:02 For those of us that are not in the know, um, or if I'm able to, can you tell us what precipitated the creation and dissolusion of the M Midwest Annex? Yeah, it was family related. Um I uh my two sons uh live in Indiana and um my youngest son was uh basically going into high school. I won't get too much into it, but with COVID and everything, it really restricted my ability to travel back and forth. And so I thought it was important that I was back up there um for uh my youngest my older son is a is an adult. Well, my youngest son is actually uh an adult now also. Uh my he turned um oh he'll be turning not yet.

16:54 He'll be turning uh 18 in June. Sorry. Um but he graduated and so that was really what it was was that um I wanted to be up there during those kind of you know what I think are pretty important years. and then now that he's graduated back down here. What's the hardest thing about coming back to Florida? Um, not much. I'll be very honest with you. This is nothing against uh Indiana nor the people especially that live there because man have I met some fantastic people from Indiana. Um, and it's also one of the best gaming states that you'll ever find, uh, board gaming. An outrageous wealth of good board gaming stores in Indianapolis. There's other cities within Indiana that have good game stores, great game groups, yada yada yada. Okay, that being said, Indiana was not really for me. I went there to go to college, uh, which was great. I loved going to Indiana University in Bloomington. I loved Bloomington, but um I do not like the climate at all in in Indiana. I'm a West Coast kid. I was born and raised in Southern California. And so real real um I never got used to the cold. Never ever ever got used to the cold, snow, uh ice, none of that. Um so coming back to Florida is has been uh the only Oh,

18:25 okay. The hardest thing about coming back to Florida is my my sons. That's the hardest part. Um but uh other than that, yeah. No, it's it's uh this is more my my cup of tea down here in the bright and shiny Florida sun. And I just answered a Florida weather question. Yep. Yep. Am I going to UKG to see Dan Hughes? Well, a Richard, I hate to break the hearts of everyone going to UKGE, but I don't believe Dan is going. I could be wrong, but I don't believe he's going and I unfortunately will not be going. I have never gone to UK GE. I would love to one of these years and uh you know, hopefully that's something that can happen. I've been to the UK a few times now. Um went to Aircon one year uh in Manchester and really enjoyed that. but um not been to UKG and from what I understand that is getting to be a very very large convention larger I believe than Origins now. So pretty impressive.

19:46 Okay. I don't know who Mr. Bubbuffles is. Okay. Uh, if Dr. Keni is your f favorite designer, and he is, uh, who is number two and three? Now, this is tough. I ju I did not too long ago my top 10 board game designers. Um, Sashi is likely uh within the top three of my favorite board game designers uh of Sashi and Sashi uh publishing. Uh he's just done so many fantastic games. Shem Phillips is in the running there for sure. Um yeah, there's a lot. I mean, there's as far as tricktaking designers go, Tiki Shinzawa is my favorite trick taking designer. Um yeah, there's there's several that are would be in that top tier, but there's a couple of them for you.

21:02 Hello, Mike. It really seems um like it is very crowded now in Dice Tower and you have more people than shows. You don't appear anymore on Thursday news show and on some top 10. Can you do a new just show? Uh well, a couple of things here. Number one, I like to think of it as instead of crowded, an embarrassment of riches because there are so many great people on the channel that all bring something unique and um noteworthy to uh the content that we produce here at the Dice Tower. Um while it's true that I don't appear on the news show anymore, I will be on tomorrow because Tom is out, so I'll be on there tomorrow. Um, and I put the news together. So, um, I'm still involved in the news. I'm just not on camera. Um, but hey, Tom, Z, and Joey, they sure do a heck of a job. So, uh, I don't think there's anything to complain about there. Um, a new Just Me show.

22:05 Look, that that's that's really a Tom thing. Um, you know, Tom is the ultimate arbiter of what the programming is here on the Dice Tower, and he certainly must be doing something right because, you know, we have a a thankfully and gratefully a very uh dedicated fan base, people that that like what we do and continue to like what we do. If Tom decides that he feels like they he wants a dedicated show with me a part of it, I'm happy to do it. But um I'm also happy to keep doing what I've been doing here. And um yeah, I think we have an embarrassment of riches.

22:47 I'm not sure what my all-time most played game is because I don't track my plays, which I probably should. What did I think of Roth Solo? It's been a minute. Um, I believe I much preferred it as a multiplayer game. I'm pretty sure that's the case. I don't remember exactly. I mean, I played Roth Solo clearly, but I'm really trying to remember kind of how you administered it, things along those lines. I think you could play against all of the factions solo. And so that was kind of cool if I remember right. I'd have to kind of re revisit it.

23:41 With convention season coming up, are you going to film any more of the amazing Will Play It Live intros now? Uh, yeah. We I did do a couple of those, right? I did one when we were on stage for the Dice Tower Awards at Gen Con before we actually went live, but we had the whole uh audience there. So, that was that was kind of fun. Um, and then we did one with Frank West, the designer of uh among many other games of Cats and Ember Leaf. Um, and he was a great sport cuz I think he kind of knew what we were doing, but he kind of didn't. And so you could kind of see he he does this reaction that is partly for show but is partly I think a legit reaction because that one we filmed before the hall opened and um there were other publishers and stuff around and I definitely got the attention of all the other booths around us cuz I screamed.

24:39 That's part of the the the um gag there. They're not I don't I'm not trying to make this sound like I'm some kind of a martyr or anything, but they're not easy to do voice-wise because I really just kind of let it shred. And especially at a convention where I've usually been doing a lot of talking at higher volumes because there's so much ambient noise going on at conventions, you have to talk at a higher volume anyway just to be heard that my voice is usually pretty strained at conventions and so they're a little bit harder to pull off there. I know um Chris and I have been talking and Tom um recently about doing some more here in the studio and and so that's probably going to happen. I don't see why not. People seem to enjoy them. I'm sure we can come up with more stupid ideas uh for those. So, uh maybe we'll do some more.

25:45 I hope you can answer this one. I can. Do you think you can do another Tokyo Game Market maybe this fall? And do you make other Dice Tower people play the Tokyo Game Market games? Okay, first of all, um, can I do another Tokyo game market? Uh a thousand% I can. Will I is the question. Will I be able to look? Um one of the best experiences gaming related uh in my life was going to Tokyo Game Market. It was something that I never thought was going to happen and I'm still kind of stunned that was able to happen. Uh, so I have so much gratitude, so many amazing memories from that experience, even though it was very much a whirlwind. Um, just memories that I literally will never forget. Um, so if that's the only time I ever go, I'm going to count myself lucky and be very grateful for the time that I had there.

26:50 That being said, I would love to go back. I mean it was an amazing experience but um as part of the dice tower I just don't know how feasible that is because the last trip was a sponsored trip uh from Arkite who runs uh the publisher Japanese publisher who runs it. Um and so that played a part. Also, we have such a busy convention schedule here at the Dice Tower that being able to take time away to to go to them can sometimes be tricky. So, um I will not be going to fall. I can pretty much guarantee you that. Um that's just not going to happen. Um do I make other people play? Do I make No. Do I cajul? Do I ask? Do I threaten? I don't threaten, but I do uh try. Um, usually Chris is not a problem because he likes a lot of those types of games as well. Um, I did just uh play President Maker. I just reviewed that one recently. And so that was a ty market released, but honestly it it's available on Amazon US. I got it on Amazon before Tokyo Game Market even happened. And so I had played it um and you know played it here and reviewed it and it also was released at Tokyo Game Market.

28:16 I need to stop the boop, don't I? I just always say boop. Which convention is the most hectic and which is the least? Uh I would say for most it is Essen. my opinion, I think Essen is a bit more hectic than Gen Con. There's a couple of reasons why it feels more crowded to me um in the halls, at least in the hall we're in. We're usually in, if not the busiest hall, one of the two busiest halls, which is great, right? I mean, you want to be where the people are. So, it's not a negative necessarily, but it it's very loud, very hectic. It's a journey every time you need to use the restroom. Um, also, um, there's just a lot happening and, uh, so that doesn't mean I don't like it, but I do feel like it's the most hectic of the conventions. Also, it's, you know, I'm in a different country. There's more travel. Um, it's also longer. Uh, the the hours at Essen are longer than at Gen Con by an hour each day. And so, you feel that last hour. I feel I'll speak for myself. I feel that last hour a lot. The least is probably the Dice Tower Retreat. Okay.

29:30 It's very laid-back, very much a um smaller group and feels just a lot more chill. You know, we're we we don't do shows. Um there's not like a big events and stuff like that. It's just us playing games. So, uh that's the least hectic.

29:58 Hi Mike. Japanese small games are kind of their board gaming identity. Do they make any big box games and why have we not heard of them? Um yes that is true generally speaking. Uh the Japanese board game market tends to go for smaller boxes and I think that's for practical reasons. Um I just think that a lot of times the living spaces are smaller. Maybe their gaming tables might be smaller, things along those lines. So, they tend to value games that have an economy of space. A lot of times they'll take games that were larger and make smaller versions for the Japanese market. I mean, RAW is one example of that. Uh, there are several though. Um, but I will say over the last few years, I am seeing more big box games from Japan and some that you might have heard of. Um, one of the biggest examples I can think of is Austia from Ucha Bakoya Games. So, Austia is in a very large box. The followup big game from them, Sweetlands, very large box, same size as Austia. Their upcoming game, Rosalie, same big size box. So, uh, Uchbakoya has done done some, um, uh, Asobition Games have done a couple of larger games like, um, Compania, which was picked up by level 99 games here in North America.

31:19 That's a large regular box game. Um, they also did a game called Beverage, which is a larger box game, although that one was not picked up by a North American publisher. You can look at the game that is coming out soon, uh, that was on Kickstarter called Falling. that was from Sunnybird Games in Japan, but is being brought over by Capstone Games here in North America. Another, you know, standard box size, larger box size. So, they're definitely becoming more and more prevalent. Um, so yeah, you'll start to, I think, notice a bit more of those because I think that they're noticing that there are larger markets for these games. And so a lot of times they'll, you know, they're accommodating that by doing the larger boxes.

32:05 Oh boy. Let me see how far down. Okay, I'm not too far off. I'm not too far off. So, let me go back up. Playing my first game of Colution tonight. Any advice? Well, uh, it depends. If you are learning it from the rule book and you are teaching new players, then the advice there would be maybe watch a couple of videos, see if you can get uh like maybe one round of the game, a playthrough and watch watch that. Watch I believe Tom did the over Did Tom do the overview or did I do the overview? Watch the overview on the Dice Tower review, you know, plugging our own channel of course. Um but uh be give yourself grace. That's what I would say. And the players around you um if you're teaching, I would just emphasize to new players. This is not patronizing in any way. Maybe maybe all the people maybe you and all the people you play with are big heavy gamers are used to playing a lot of Lertas and the like, but I will say that uh Colution by me is far and away uh the the heaviest Stefenfeld game. I think it's really good. I like Civiliza or Civil a lot.

33:17 But don't expect it to be like other Stefenfeld games. I would say that I've played all but the final mission in Eternal Decks. Favorite player count? I kind of like them all. Probably three and four would be my favorite. Two my least favorite and solo in there as well, but it's kind of different.

33:56 I really want a copy of Nakosu Dice, but it's a bit too pricey on the secondary market. Any insidefo on a state side release or reprint? I don't have any inside info. Uh so I am fortunately cannot help you there. Um I'll be really surprised if it does not get picked up and maybe it has already gotten picked up and I've just forgotten. I thought there were some stirrings about Nakosu Dice gotten getting picked up or had been picked up by um stateside publisher. Now I'm now I'm questioning myself like I seem to remember that there was but I don't have a timeline. I can't remember uh who it would be. Maybe Portland Game Collective. I know I think they've been working on that. So I'm not sure. Um yeah, it's one that is pricey. There's just there's no two ways about it. Um, for a long time it was very hard to get even in Japan. But now this new uh this newest edition they made quite a few they printed quite a few copies be because there's been so much demand that I don't think it's tough to get in Japan now I believe. Um I want to say it was even available on Amazon Japan which used to be my go-to. Uh, I used to buy a lot of Japanese games from Amazon Japan, but unfortunately with the the tariff situation, that has made that uh a bit pricier.

35:29 How many times did I play uh Cosmic Encounter? Once. I played it once. It was live on the channel and I won. I enjoyed it. I will probably not play it again. It's just not really my type of game, but I enjoyed it and I'm glad I'm glad I can say say that I played it.

35:54 How many days do I need to reset my voice? Probably a good day. Hello from Japan. Hello. Um, wow. So, it's probably pretty late at night there. I'm guessing it's like what is it like 10:30 p.m. there right now? 11:30 somewhere around that time.

36:25 Um, when you yell will play it live, you are projecting JK Simmons as Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man movies. I wish that were true. Oh, were that true. That is absolutely not who I am channeling. Uh I am channeling a very specific person and it's based off of a very specific uh event that you can certainly find on YouTube. Um but I'll leave it at that.

37:01 Bruce Schwearing, are you going to take up surfing again now that you're back in Miami? Well, I'm not in Miami. Um I'm I'm in Fort Meyers and that's GF coast and not really good for for surfing um around here. It's not really surfing um beaches. That is on the Atlantic side. So, um would I go surfing again if I pop over to Miami or Fort Lauderdale? Probably more likely because it's more of a straight shot over. Um maybe. I mean, I I would love to. Uh, I'm sure I'm pretty rusty now and would need to uh spend a good couple hours just getting my feet back under me again.

37:48 This is an interesting question. I'm about to make eggs for breakfast but don't have any bread for toast. How should I prepare them? Well, um, I'll eat eggs, but I'm not a huge egg person. Usually, if I'm eating eggs, I want them as part of like a a breakfast sandwich. Um, and when I do eat eggs, I don't want yolk. I certainly don't want runny yolk. So, like if an egg is over hard or scrambled, then I'm much more likely to be down with that. Uh, I do not like runny yolk at all. Um, so I'd say get some Fruity Pebbles. Just forget the eggs. Everyone's got Fruity Pebbles in their cabinet, right? The breakfast of champions. Um, I would probably go, if I didn't have any toast to make it a sandwich, I would probably go um scrambled. If you've got, you know, some kind of breakfast meat you can scramble in with that, that might be nice. Maybe an omelette. Maybe I'd go omelette. That's probably what I'd do.

38:52 Especially if I had some uh onion I can chop up and put in there. Ham or bacon, cheese. I'd probably go with an omelette. Okay. Shot down to the bottom for some reason. Oh, wow. Okay, now I feel like I've got a lot more here to go through. I may do like a really rapid fire thing. Okay, but we're not there yet. We're only at 938.

39:24 Which of the Dice Tower co-workers game tastes most and least align with your own? This is um it's not a a simple black and white question for me. Um I would say that my game tastes tend to line up most most with Z and Chris for specific types of games. I think Chris and I definitely share a love of trick taking games. uh maybe some of the Japanese games. He he really he seems to have kind of taken taken a real liking to those as well. Z I would say the midweight Euros we tend to favor the card games that we tend to to be you know aligned with that. I would say overall probably mostly Z uh Chris there as well. Um, Tom is an omniamer, so with him, I like a lot of the stuff he likes, but I also don't play a lot of the games he plays, and I dislike some of the stuff he likes. Joey, I'm still figuring out. Joey is kind of he's not an omniamer. I wouldn't go that quite quite that far, but he will play, I think, anything. I think he leans more towards the thematic type of games and and I'm okay with some of those, but they're not usually the ones that I go to first.

40:44 Um, yeah, that's probably that's probably what I'd say. It's a little wishy-washy of an answer, but that's going to have to be. Would I, if warranted, update my top 50 solo games? Um, potentially. Potentially. That's something that could happen in the future.

41:15 lots of shouting of names in the in the chat. Uh, do you and Tom sometimes have battle of the hats before stream? No. Look, I mean, it's really recently that I've gotten into the hat game, and it's a very specific type of hat. And there's a couple of reasons why. Tom has been championing hats for years. Z has been championing hats for years. I'm the newcomer on the hat uh block, and I'm doing it for the worst of reasons, mostly. Um, I will say there's a small part of me that likes kind of stylistically I I've been I've been maybe this is more of a slightly post midlife thing where I'm wanting to kind of revisit the styles that I grew up with. And so these types of hats were a big part of the Southern California punk rock uh type of a thing. And so I kind of like bringing that back and these are becoming seems like very popular, these style of hats.

42:37 Um, and I'm noticing Tom is picking up more of these type of hats. He was mostly more of a fedora type of a guy before and Z's always been kind of the baseball cap kind of guy. Um, so no battle because I am a pretender. Oh, I'm leaving out the main reason is vanity because I don't have as much hair as I used to. I don't love seeing the thinning of my hair. Uh, you know, it it just it's vanity, pure and simple. All right. I have not played through hostage negotiator career, unfortunately. I did the overview of Civil and Mike Heler put it in the chat. Thank you so much.

43:28 There have been several games uh without an official solo mode that I wished had one and I have homebrewed my own. Um so first thing I want to say, every game does not need a solo mode. Pure and simple. Okay, there are several games where solo modes were made and they were terrible because the game was not well suited for a solo mode. So, we we've I think solo gamers have got to get past this idea that every game needs a solo mode. It's just not true. Okay. Um, but there have been times where I felt like games were particularly well suited for a solo mode and didn't have one and so I kind of try to keep up with my own.

44:13 There's actually a couple of unofficial ones that I even posted on BG. There's a rolling right game from Riner Kitia called Cascadito um from Bitewing and I came up with a little solo variant for that. I posted that up on BGG so it's there as an unofficial solo variant if you have any interest and you have that game. Another one I did was way back for um Sentient from J. Alex Kever. that was a game that I thought would really do well with a solo variant. And so, um, I came up with one there that I posted and then it kind of went through iterations because other people were kind of like working alongside and so that's up there as well. I have not looked at that in years though. So, um, but yeah, I have done that on on occasion and other times that I just never felt like necessarily I would post although there may even be other ones I just can't remember.

45:17 My wife is a teacher and her summer starts in two and a half hours. Is summer break the only thing you miss from teaching? No. No. There's a lot of things I miss from teaching. Um there's a lot of things I don't miss from teaching, but uh summer break was not so there were several summers that I worked over summer break because you know one of the things about teaching is it does not pay well. And so um I worked like at Target a couple of years over summer break just to get some extra money. um didn't you know didn't do a lot of trips during summer breaks and stuff like that. It just wasn't you know at that point in my life there just wasn't really that uh kind of a thing going on.

46:04 Also I think summer breaks are greatly exaggerated. People have this idea that teachers get like four months off. It ain't like that. Let me tell you. Uh, have I ever had a big game spill? Lost a game, maybe got lost a game on the floor, everything spilled out, or I spilled something on a game, god forbid. Yeah, those things have happened. Um, rarely, thankfully. I'm I'm pretty careful with drinks around games. Um, but I did spill water on something once and well near something and a drop of it or two got on the board and it freaked me out and I wiped it really clear, but I was like, "Oh man, this is going to just swell up." And uh, so yeah, I I have lost game pieces on the floor definitely. Um, I don't think I've had games spill and all over and yeah, that sucks. Not pleasant.

47:10 How big is your board game collection now? And how much bigger was it just before you moved? Uh, and how big before you moved away from Florida? So, there's nu numerous questions here. I'll kind of answer them all somewhat. Uh, I think the largest collection I ever had was be in Indiana before I moved to Florida. first time I had in the thousands uh at that point. I think maybe many hundreds if not. Um but then I called that significantly before I moved to Florida the first time. um significantly like I called whole um multi-shelf callalaxes and gave the callalaxes away as well when I first moved uh to Florida. Uh so I got rid of many many games then. Then um before I moved to Florida this time I also called a lot of games and got rid of a lot of games. my um collection now it's probably more card games uh or close to more card games and board games. So what I did right now my collection fits on five shelving. So you've got a what is it? A 4x4 callex. I've got a another

48:45 is it a one or a two? It's about six and a half shelves of callics. And then I bought an old school spinning media cabinet that was originally just it's I think it's meant for like DVDs or CDs, adjustable shelves, and it spins and I'm using that for my card game. So, that's pretty much my collection. I don't I don't know uh I don't know how many, but it's not anywhere near what it's been. I have not played Layers Beyond the base game. I would love to.

49:27 Uh Overparked is my personal copy. I actually, Mike, I bought it at the board game bash. Somebody sold it there. And um and yeah, if there's an interest though, I can I'm sure I can bring it to uh I could bring it to East or something like that. I'm already I know I'm bringing a couple of things that people have asked about.

49:56 Um someone's asking about if I can give an overview on how the games for the Dice Tower Awards are nominated. prefer to leave that to uh Tom because I don't know. I'm afraid I'll give incorrect information. I have a I have, you know, somewhat of an idea, but I would prefer to leave that one to Tom because he's in charge and he know of the awards, well, of the channel and of the awards and he knows exactly how that works. Bruce wants to know when I'm coming back to Indie to play TI4 with you. I'll be coming back to Indie, I'm sure, several times, but it won't be to play TI4. I'm sorry. Played it once again. happy I played it and will likely never play it again. Okay.

50:43 One game specific trip you look you specifically look forward to. I still look forward to Essen although that trip is so so taxing but I still look forward to Essen. I I I do love going to Europe.

51:04 Uh, what game mechanisms do you tend to find easier and harder to teach? For example, drafting I generally find intuitive. I agree. But network building is difficult. Yeah, I I think drafting and set collection is relatively intuitive. Those those things I find are really pretty easy to teach. Um, I worker placement. I think it can be a challenge for newer gamers that have never experienced that mechanism, but still not that tough to teach. You know, you you have what are called workers and you put them in these spots and in these spots you get to take an action associated with that spot. That kind of a thing I don't think is too tough. Um, but also I'm remembering when I first the first modern hobby board game I played was Katon and the idea of victory points was completely foreign to me. I was like, "What? What's a victory point?

51:57 How do you win?" So, I I still, you know, I still keep that stuff, you know, in mind and I I don't forget what it was like to be a new gamer, I don't think. Um, economic games can be particularly difficult to teach. Stock market games can be particularly difficult to teach. Um, tricktaking, if you've not grown up with trick-taking games, I think can be particularly difficult to teach, especially the more complex ones that have like, you know, um, variable rankings of suits and things like that. Uh, even if it's just a card game, that can be tricky. So, yeah.

52:41 Uh, if a game with an IP attached to it is always going to be automatically shunned before even uh being played due to the under bund under abundance of bad IP games. No. No, not necessarily. Now, I will say there is there is a slight I'm not going to pretend that there's not somewhat of a stigma that is attached to many IP games. Um, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be garbage. You can usually tell when you see kind of the advertising for that game whether it's going to be one that hey this might actually be interesting. Sometimes the IP is particularly well suited for gaming and sometimes that you're thinking how are you going to turn this into a board game. But yeah, it's not automatically a no-go.

53:26 If Dr. Kenitzia wins the Kenner spiel having already won the spiel in Kinder Spiel. Is that the board gaming equivalent of an EGOT? Um Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, if you're not aware of an EGOT, that's somebody who's won all four of those. I suppose it kind of would be the equivalent of that. Sure. Although I think that um Kenitia the games he's won four are not even his best games. Um now I like Rebirth a lot. We just played that live on the channel uh yesterday. I like rebirth a lot and I'd love to see it won win the Kenner Spiel, but I feel like I need to play all the other ones to really be able to say which one I should Okay.

54:17 Sorry, I'm just making people talking about Fruity Pebbles now. Yeah. favorite video I've ever been a part of. This is really hard. There have been there have been ones that were just really fun to film and came out really funny. Um, there was one we did. I'm trying to remember which one. Like I think it was for Oh, there was there was a particular Gen Con awards and where we did like rejected that was it rejected Dice Tower award uh nominee nomination categories and I had a lot of fun with that one.

55:07 That was really that that one turned out really good and so uh that was fun. That's one of my favorite. And I always love watching the bloopers, even though, you know, that's not really, uh, a produced video per se. It's an edited one, that's for sure. But, um, it's just moments from throughout the years. Um, there are a couple of top 10s that I really really enjoyed that I felt like were really just had really good chemistry and and really funny. Um, but I I can't recall all of those.

55:42 How much time do we got left here? 50. You got six minutes. Favorite Seinfeld uh side character. Putty. Buddy. I think Buddy's hilarious. There's so many. We got hat suggestions for the rest of the team. That's great. There are several uh out of print board games that I would like to see made again, but I mean they probably will or they probably are just too niche. Uh they're remaking Queen's Gambit, Star Wars Queen's Gambit, and I just played that for the first time last year with Bruce who has asked several questions here. Um I really had a good time with that. And so I'll be interested to see what Restoration does with it.

56:37 Okay. Shave that head. I did it a couple of years ago and wish I hadn't waited so long. Yeah. See, I've considered it. Both of my brothers uh shave their heads. They're both older than me, to be fair. Um, I just don't know if I have the right scalp shape. I don't know. Like, it's a huge leap of faith. I sh I think there are apps I'm actually sure there are apps that can baldify you. Um, maybe. I don't know. I just I don't know. I probably need to just do it. I don't think my wife would care. She is so not hung up on my hair. I'm the one hung up on my hair.

57:36 Sorry, this is funny. Are you and Dan working on I Burned You a CD? Um, no. And now we can't because Josh, you came up with that. Um, we've talked about uh expansion type ideas definitely. Um, and that may or may not happen in the future. Um, that's pretty funny though. Maybe we actually talked about I burned you a CD, but I I I don't know. There's a there's a theme to this is I can't remember. I don't know. I'm not doing well at staving off the old jokes.

58:17 What? Come teach in Australia, Mike. teachers earned about 100K on average here. I'm in. And Australia seems pretty cool, too. Other than I know there's a lot of things that try to kill you there, but um animals and such insects, but I don't care. Wow. 100,000 average. And does that translate cost of living wise? I know it's going to depend where you are, but wow. Okay. Good for Australia. Teachers need to be paid what they're worth. Okay, we Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna start jumping down to the bottom.

59:02 Um, watching the top 100 video. What exactly are the lyrics to my intro video? Who wrote it? Those were written by Chris. Uh, Mike Delissio. Bravisimo. Sporadically bored but never pianimo. I think that's it. He's got it goes a little more, but people I think struggle with picking up pianimo.

59:29 Um, you can make I taped you a game show. Do you know folks that um depending upon what um TV stations streaming packages you have that there's a 24-hour the Price is Right channel? There's actually two of them depending upon which host. Um I've spent an inordinate amount of time watching old Prices Right shows. Okay. I like game shows a lot. Stay longer for the West Coast people barely waking up. I would, but I got a lot to do today.

1:00:21 Um, how do you find today's rule books compared to the rule books of the past like Avalon Hills in the 70s and 80s? Unfortunately, I can't speak to this because I did not play a lot of those Avalon Hill games. If I was playing games in the 70s and 80s, they would have been the mass market Hasbro Parker Brothers type things where the rules were often times printed on the inside of the box. So, I can't speak to that. I will say that there um look, I'm sorry. I'm going to continue to push this. Um, board game rule books need to get better. Period. Period. Some are great, but if somebody cannot learn the game solely from your rule book, it's not a good rule book. I don't think that's a controversial statement. I don't think that I'm being dramatic. If you cannot learn the game thoroughly from just the rule book, you need a better rule book. Period. And there's too many games that I play and you can't learn it from the rule book because it's missing something. It's incorrect. It expects you to go watch a video. It has 20 pages of Ara on BG. No.

1:01:36 Okay. Okay. Let's get the last one or two here. Uh oh. Apparently I I snagged o overparked from Mike Heler. Were you interested in that too? I didn't get it like early. It was like I think on the second day I went that I got it. Uh shipping from Singapore to the US for Overparked is twice the cost of the game. Yeah, that's not great. But I want to say wasn't overparked available I think it was available from all play for a while. I don't know if it still is, but I think I think Allplay was carrying overparked retail in the states. Maybe double check that.

1:02:28 Okay. Anything else? Anything else? It's so hard to say goodbye to all of you. Copyright strike. Okay, one more. One more. Australian

1:02:53 dollar equals 71 US. So that's still a pretty good Okay. Exact exact conversion rates. All right. Um I'm not seeing a new Oh, final question. What is the recipe to be deletio level? Cool. Um, first you need to be uh overly concerned about the thinning of your hair. Second, you have to drink one large tumbler of coffee each morning. I like Oh, and it's iced, by the way. Iced coffee for me all the way. Even if it's freezing cold outside, I'm drinking iced coffee. I just prefer colder beverages to warmer beverages. The only exception is, well, it's not an exception. Tea is something that I like both cold and hot. I'll drink hot coffee. I prefer iced. Uh what else? Um that's about it. You got that. You've got um the Lissio level cool for better or more likely for much much worse. All right, folks. Well, it's been my pleasure as always to say hello, answer a few questions from all of you lovely people in the chat. Thank you so much for supporting us on the Dice Tower.

1:04:12 Make sure that uh you get out to one of our conventions if you can. Dice Tower East is coming up so soon and I'm looking forward to that. Stay around uh later today. Come back for crowd surfing. We're going to be covering a bunch of stuff there. And look, I've done enough plugging. I've done enough uh shilling. Thank you so much and good bye.

1:04:44 Hey everybody, thanks for watching another video from the Dice Tower. Hey, you want to learn more about us, communicate with us, we have a Facebook group, we have a Discord channel, lots of different ways to get involved with the Dice Tower. You can find that in our link tree link below. So just click that. It will take you and you can communicate with us on Facebook. Join our Facebook groups. There's lots of cool things that you can find and become part of the Dice Tower. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Tom Bassel.