Crowdsurfing - February 11, 2026
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Transcript
Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat.
What? Hey, [screaming] good afternoon everybody. I'm Tom Vessel.
I'm Z Garcia.
I'm Camila.
And welcome to Crowd Surfing, a show where we take a look at Kickstarter, gamefound, and occasionally a backer kit project.
Do we have the day today?
We do. We do.
You don't remember?
Nope.
All right.
It was I think I know which one it is.
You'll be unpleasantly surprised.
You Yeah, I'm writing down which one I think it is.
Yeah, write it down, please.
You're correct.
Okay.
She barely She just scribbled.
I'm getting good at these games for you. Just give oneletter clues. I'm like, I know.
Stop playing Bullseye.
Um, anyhow, we want to say thank you to our sponsor, GameFound. There's a project. Well, let me show you the project first and we'll be right back.
Hey folks, today we're taking a look at Chall 2.0 Midnight Odyssey from Lunar Oak Studio. So, this is a game, a sci-fi, this is a mega game. There's a lot going on in this. A sci-fi game about darkness coming. Uh you can see here the story, the darkness wept, these shadows that rain down on the earth. So, uh, the the black tide of Shiaol. So, what we're looking at here is a big involved story, a sci-fi story with a lot of unique concepts, and a ton of, well, story that's involved in the game. And in fact, let's take a look at what you get in this game. There's eight boards, four miniatures, 83 cards. But one of the things to to point out here when we take a look at everything that's in the game is that there's so many illustrations, but a 100,000 words of story plus all these other components. You can see this is a mega game that's going to take you a long time to play through and work together to fight off these shadows. Now, this is the second edition here. So they show you, for example, if you already owned the game, you can buy an upgrade pledge to upgrade. Or if you've never played before, then you can start with this 2.0. And then lots of different add-ons and more that are included with the game, an organizer box, extra dice, get that sundrop finishing. You know you want it.
So this is SH 2.0 Midnight Odyssey on Game right now.
Saying not that it's competition, but I
All righty. The reason I we mentioned that the SH project is uh that it's in that endgame thing right now. Like it counts down 10 minutes if someone backs it. You can keep going. So
you're in the end game now.
So if you want to back it
Star Wars,
you need to do it right now.
All righty. Before we start this, I need to borrow that pencil.
Oh, can I have it back?
Yes. Uh we want to say thank you to some of our game found backers. We want to say thank you to James Labar.
James
Scott and Becky from Belmont.
Scott Bula.
Scott Bula. Is that what you said?
Scott and Becky.
Oh, I heard Scott Bagula. Sorry, Becky.
To Paul Zabat.
Jane Mascara and Mark Meadows.
Xander and Zoru.
Oh,
Kevin Remington and family. Dave Maro from Vancouver, Washington.
Luke Bonetski from Poland. Juan and Elaine Delgado. David Tinnan. David and Susan Duckworth from Newcastle. Ay, and Ms. Pippa Vivian.
There's a lot of cool names. I think the the last name
Remington might be one of my favorite last names ever.
That's good.
Remington.
That's a good one.
All right.
A good strong name. I don't mess with No.
Winchester. Maybe.
That's okay. Yeah.
Remington. You don't mess with the
Get out of here. Wesson. Whatever. But Remington.
I like my last name. There's only like 235 in the world.
Really?
So that's what chat GPT said. That's it.
Ask how many first names there are of you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ask it how many I wonder if there's more. No, that's I don't wonder. I was saying my maiden name or my you know my now named Klehorn. I wonder which one. But no, my maiden name is probably like one in three people.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's everyone's
maiden name.
Now you're going to let the chat just stew on that.
I know. I was going to give it and then I was like, "No, I don't want you guys to be able to guess all my passwords. You don't get my maid."
First name Remington is
as a child. Don't say it. My best friend from elementary school. No,
I think it's your mother's maiden name usually. Anyway,
I guess if you named like Remington could also be a first name. You could name then your child. Remington. Remington.
Would you call him Remy? Remy Remington.
Remy Remington is a good name.
He would not get beat up. That is 100%.
You can trust Remy Remington.
I like that. I like this. Z Remington.
Let's jump into our projects for the week. Let's talk about the weather. The daily weather. A different challenge each day. This reminds me of that little thing Mike showed.
I did a puzzle with Mike Delisio where you you had to f each day you would set this the device to that date and then you had to solve the Sudoku type puzzle or whatever it was.
I remember that. Okay.
Yeah, we I think we have a copy here somewhere. So, this is a little puzzle. Play to six cards to complete today's puzzle.
Yeah. So you set it up every day based on the month and the day and then you just kind of cover it up with six set aside cards trying to get a pattern built. The game it seems cute and I love the idea of it being a different setup based on the actual real day of the year.
Mhm.
But the puzzle does not sound very interesting to me. It sounds kind of like me.
And if you can do it every day for a year, it seems like like I'm doing a puzzle right now, 101 ones from Pandasaurus, you know, and it evolves monthtomonth. gives you a little something new to do. And so I would worry about this over the course of a year just getting
well to be fair. I I know the people in my family have been playing Wordle for like seven years straight.
That's really fair. That's a really good counter point.
And every day we're playing Wordle and every day we need to announce it or groan at the table loudly so that I will say, "What's the matter?" It's a hard one. Don't care. Sorry, I'm projecting. Let's continue.
Hope they're not watching.
18.
Oh yeah, like they're watching. Super interesting.
You heard this. They're definitely not watching.
1880 Romania. It's been a while since we've seen an 18xx game. Um, and now we got a new one here. I think I think they're kind of running out of like
years. Yeah.
No, not years, but countries, you know. So, I I don't think, for example, 1880 Romania. I don't think we'll see the sequel 1884,
you know. Romania. Not. Yeah. That being said,
these games slowly look slightly nicer every time I see one. And yet, [snorts]
it is this is for who they are.
Yes. Yeah, it's
this is nicer. That's saying a lot. Um
to me, it always looks prototype, you know, but that's my taste. Like
they have that look. Um which again is fine. I I get it. If you don't mind that look or maybe you even enjoy that look, then it's not a big deal. I've said it before. I'll say it again. And I am glad that these games can now find their audience on this website
because otherwise these are very hard to distribute. You can't just make them
and sit on these games. You know what I mean? Like they will not find that audience. You got to find the person who wants this game based on where you are. So this is the way to go.
But these have been getting I think pretty good reviews. All the ones that have come out. This is the main source of the 18X games these days. This guy Lonnie.
I want to get 18 Kuba. I saw it right there.
Tinkura. This is a strategic worker placement game. So, Tinkura, become an 18th century pharmacist and don't kill anyone cuz none of them did. And prove your skills. That is a straight up euro. I picture I'd be like, I played that game. Wait, no, I don't think I have, but I might have.
Yeah.
This is a theme that I think u you've said before you're kind of tired of where it's like go out and forage to make some potions to sell the potions, stuff like that. You've said it's it's a little light at this point, right?
I'm a little tired of the fantasy version where it's just kind of like ubity gooy red plus yellow as a potion.
And that's what I was going to say is I think that this is taking that, but somehow bringing it back to this closer to real world setting is really intriguing. I agree. I really liked the look of this. I like, you know, you're kind of foraging, but you're experimenting with your potions, you know, making different kinds of ointments or potions or um whatever it says right there um to fulfill contracts. a lot of different track movement and and you know board management. I thought this was super cute
and I will say this is one of the best videos I've seen in a long time. It's not flashy. It's not expensive. Doesn't look expensive. But I watched that video and I know if I would like this game or not and I know how it functions.
Mhm.
That video was fantastic. I did not need to dig into the minutia of this page. It's there if I want it, but I can watch the video and I know what's going on. I understand the kind of game they're making, right? And who their target audience is.
Awesome.
That's cool. That's cool.
Lots of moving parts, lots of interesting mechanisms. And yeah, it's it's a Euro game through and through, but I know what it is.
They made this Norseman game, which I still haven't got to the table yet. I really like that color.
So, yeah, I remember us really liking the
Yeah, it's out there. It's
the game found for this, but
I should have played it last night. Well,
yeah. What are you doing?
I was playing other worst games.
Come in. Oh, underwater cities. He said
the worst games, he said.
I thought maybe you played the new expansion. I want to play that.
Pampo, the unparalleled renewable energy euro game. So, this is Pamperro's already been out there. This adds an expansion, which is a way that you can go to Kickstarter again, but also a thinly veiled, hey, if you haven't got it the first time,
you can get it. So, this is a big game. It looks like it's in the line of the uh Lasera games.
That's right. Um, and I believe Lera said he liked this game. It's hard to remember if he did if he said it or not. I do know that the big Euro gamers said this one wasn't as good as the rest. Although apparently someone on our team gave it a seal of
Excellence. Graham Anderson. I'd looked that up because I didn't know that anyone had played it, but yeah, it was Graham.
I think Chris played it maybe. Well,
the only review that I saw was from Graham.
Yeah, I've heard mixed things on this. Certainly is pretty though, for sure. It looks really cool, but
I heard it's a lot of work. It's one of those It's a style of game that I'm not probably going to play, but I can see why people would.
I think in a vacuum right now, without knowing a whole lot about either this game or the one we just looked at, I'm I'm more intrigued by the other one we just looked at. It's got a cooler theme and just looks a little more
like this looks better.
Graphic design, artwork looks really good. The other one sounds better to me. I like that theme better.
I agree on that. You know, being chemical or whatever. And then the the just mechanically what was going on.
I like the theme of this one better, but I think visually this one doesn't doesn't strike me. I think especially the map EXTREMELY
OH, NOW LOOK AT THIS. WOW.
It's like how are you comparing what are you looking at a tray though? Look at the board.
Look at the board. All right. Hang on. This is a really long page.
Yeah, it just it looks like
that looks awesome.
To me, it kind of looks like an 18x kind of thing. like it's just big blocks of color, you know? There's not a lot of art to it really. So, for me, for me, I just find it very Yeah. in I don't I don't love the way this looks.
It's about the Pampers industry.
Okay. That was all right. I remain in chat. That That
said,
Mike said, "I prefer Huggies."
Okay. Well, you know what, Heler? No one's reading your comments.
Beetle Battle. Beetle Battle. Beetle Battle. Beetle.
Oh, I want to talk about this.
I don't I don't ever want to think about this game.
Bele battle. I just want to say the name. It's a six two to six player game. 25 minutes plus. Uh, this one looks like you're putting cards together that make Beatles. It's chaotic table slapping. I know you like that.
This looks awful.
Beetle chaining game will fill your lives with laughter and friendly betrayal. The best of all betrayals.
Friendly betrayal. I'm stabbing you and stealing your bank account, but you can still call me if you want.
If you need anything, reach out. We're friends. This looks like a piece of crap.
I don't think there's anything about this that I like.
Here's the thing. slapping. It's one of those dumb slapping games.
So, right there, I'm like, "No thanks."
Uh, but also those games live and die on the idea that when you flip over a card, you can quickly tell what it is, to know if you should slap it or not.
And everyone has equal opportunity to know that, you know, these cards are so busy.
They're so busy.
And it's so like if you're playing a card with a cockroach, you know it has a cockroach. It just means you're right there ready to slap it.
This is like the ultimate like Right. Exactly. Exactly. It just looks awesome.
No one has yet figured out a way to fix that problem.
We we there
and I have to play a larger slapping game amount than both of you um with the children's games and things. And it's always
games. Yeah. You said games. Okay. Good.
You should have to
just making sure
it's always how do you flip the card? Do you flip it away from yourself?
Do you do it slowly? Do you turn it sideways? Do you either disadvantage yourself tremendously or give everyone else the advantage? And at the end of the day, these games always reward the fastest player who has so much fun.
Yep.
I remember one time I played holly golly with a bunch of of teens in my school when I was teaching and we played for about 20 minutes and after 20 minutes I said I cannot play this anymore because I've literally not moved. A car would be flipped and I would and I would start to think about it and slaps were already on the table.
Yeah. Yep.
I think the only way to fix that whole you have an advantage or a disadvantage is to not involve you if you're the one flipping,
right? You're not allowed. Yeah, you're
it's still you're still running into that whole like
I flip this way so this player sees it before this player. But who cares?
Or close your eyes and 3, two, one, everyone look, you know, something like that. But
I still think it should be a grabby game.
Such a drag to do it that way.
Oh, I know. Can you imagine?
I think the solution is just play spiky dastards. Spiky
dastards. Dastardly Spiky.
Yeah, we had to take that game out of the library for
You took it out of the library.
We had to litigation reason. Where is it?
In a hospital library. I thought we took it out.
I did not have a chance to save it if it was taken out. And that makes me very upset.
There were injuries involved.
I know. Two of them were mine.
Well, those are injuries we didn't even know about.
Oh.
All right. Red Leaf University. This is from Grail Games. Grail Games have made a few good games and they made a pile of terrible ones. So, I'm always kind of on Well, let me just show you. Let's take a look at their recent games.
Yeah. I'm curious.
Night. Terrible. The Pixel series. I've only played one, but it's terrible.
You play Bob? Ohio. Bob.
Ohio. Bob.
Terrible. Yeah. Farmhand. That's a good game. Fjords. Anyway, Farmand's a good game. Baron don't know about. I haven't played his food for thought stuff and there's a lot.
So you don't like any of them?
This game Manhatt Pro Machine was not great. I'm not into 11.
Silicone Valley was fine. The Garden was fine. Fjords was okay. Habachi is good.
Riders great.
So it's kind of weird. Again, they're kind of all over the place.
They have pretty good production values though.
That I agree with.
This looks interesting. I don't love the look. I mean, I I like that cover. I think the cover is cool, and I like it in theory. I like the idea of like these sort of anthropomorphic things are going to a university or whatever. But on a card to card basis, I'm not loving the look. These are creepy looking, weird anthropomorphic things. Also, their puns are terrible.
Yeah, it it almost reminded me of like looking at the cover, I immediately was thought of the fit to print game. Yeah.
You know, kind of reminded me of that. This is one that I feel like the more I was looking at it, the more complex the game became as well, which had that disconnect from the look because again, I'm putting in I was like, oh, maybe light to medium weight, you know, kind of euro as you're planning your actions, your your [snorts] characters are going through their college career and leveling up as they, you know, age and things like that. But then it talks about all the different worker placements that you can do with those characters and there's like six or seven of them. They seem like they do pretty different things. So, it got a little bit draggy in the gameplay. I was like, "Oh, there's another thing you can do. Oh, another thing." So, I was left a little confused on how heavy of a game this is going to be.
I like some of Adrian's other games. He did Cigrada and Sparks and Mistwind. I like Sparks. Um,
Mistin. Okay. Yeah, that's the big play that one.
Yeah, I didn't play that one, but
with a big whale thing.
Yeah. Well, we'll see.
Yep.
Mythwin. Hey, it's time for money. Hey, this is a big one. This is an expansion and if again reprint that's almost always these things for the Mythwind universe. This is from Open Alw Studios and this is kind of their mo. I just got their latest game the what was it here?
Their latest.
Keep it.
Did you say latest or lightest?
Latest. It definitely is not their latest.
Okay. Stone Saga. I messed with this one a little bit. And Z and I recently reviewed Storyfold to very high praise.
Yes. Um, we all three the three of us actually reviewed Mythwind
and I was fine with it.
You were in the middle. I think you liked it the most. I liked the least.
I like there's a lot of aspects of it I liked.
Maybe
there's a lot of aspects of it I like the concept of it actually more than the game itself. I felt like the little mini games,
the exploration's interesting. Although it felt the biggest problem with the game, it never felt like we were actually doing anything. We would work really really hard and then finally we built a building
that's basically Stardew Valley but analog which means it's kind of slow and it means there's a lot of like moving bits around because you know the computer's not doing that for you and it suffers from some of the same things. There's no real like endgame, right? Like progression just for the sake of moving forward and you know but but yeah had some issues
but I think it is a very different game than the average game. I had many issues on the production.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had some issues actually with the production. Some of those tiles had a hard time fitting, but
Oh, specifically with a farmer, I think the guy who played Polyom.
Yeah. I I definitely think it's a game that if you do like those farming games, you know, your your Stardew Valley or your many of those just farming games, you know, kind of cozy endless games.
Story of seasons. What's up?
Um I don't know what that is. Um but then this is like you said an analog version of that. But you do have to know it's you just kind of keep going. You don't ever win. You don't ever lose. Develop.
That doesn't bother me as much. I don't mind the keep going. I just played
um Cozy Story, Cozy Stickerville, and that did that. And the new one that they have looks like that, too. To me, this one was I felt we kept going, but we never really
nothing really interesting was happening. It was very much a mundane life. Just da da da. And I didn't like
a couple of the mini games. So if I went in like I'm not playing that one or that one and that's kind of
but that's great for this. Then here maybe I mean there are two new characters. So I think if this is something you're into having that you know what maybe I'm played this character out a little bit too much or I want to try something else. I do think that these look like they're going to be very unique characters. If this is something that you're playing through um to add that variability to this game that just kind of keeps going and I mean that positively because I did enjoy this game.
I will give them they're a good they're a good company.
Yeah. I'll give him props too just for supporting this game. A and B, this game is really different from a lot of games out there. If you do enjoy the way this feels to engage with, you find that you know relaxing, uh, or just entertaining, then great. There's two more characters. Absolutely.
All right, now we're back to Welcome back, Tom Vessel. Um, Combat Eastern Front. This is a solitary game of man-to-man combat. This is from Compass Games, which is doing pretty well. And this is that kind of game where when I was in college, I was like, man, I want this so much. I play this forever. Oh, yeah.
So funny.
I used to look at these boards and think, how many ways can those boards fit together? I mean, it's not that big of a deal, but it just it was a
I've never thought about that. Huh.
And I just I just like the concepts of that and I like this combat, but I am done with this myself, but I'm glad this is here. I think people enjoy it. When you were in college, um, were you a massive massive nerd
per chance?
It's a it's a it's rhetorical. [clears throat]
It's rhetorical.
Thanks for watching everybody.
All right, moving on. We got
YAH [screaming] MAGAZINE.
NO HOLES war game with mounted game board. Yah is what you yell when you run into battle. I do find it funny. It's like, yah, the no. This is basically what they call this. It's a board game magazine. I'm like, it's a war game magazine, right? Let's be clear on that. Yes.
Because I thought this is really weird. I've never heard of this magazine. War games.
So, I looked it up and that's cool, though, because again,
you talk about
a thing to get another sheet of counters and a scenario for your games. So, that's really worth checking out. And you won't you know where to find it. Go to the very end in Barnes & Nobles where the W's are
just like the 18X we were talking about like this is a perfect platform for this. There is an audience for this. There's a specific audience and here is a way to reach that audience, you know. I think that's that's great.
Yeah. No, this is cool.
Blood economy. A solo vampire card game.
This is very misleading to me because when I saw that top
Uhhuh.
Did you find the same thing? When I see saw the title of the top and the brackets, the title in the brackets, I'm like, "Oh, is this from Game of the Month?"
Oh, I exactly like the ones from Gabe Barrett.
Gabe Barrett. Yeah, I thought that as well. I was surprised by how small of a game this is.
Yeah,
it's pretty much a 18. I don't think it's 18 cards, but it's not too far off from there. It's a tiny I mean, even if you get the game, it comes in one of those little like fold up things that we see from the
Bud and Shine.
No, the other ones, the um the little escape room kind of games from Horrible Guild. Um, yeah, the Christmas caper, the endangered holiday jinks.
That's from uh not Horrible Guild. That's from uh
No, you're right. Yeah, that is from uh Oh, oh, oh. Oh,
not Kids Table Board Games, but their sister company, whatever it is.
Not Burnt Island.
Burn Island. Yes, Burn Fire. That's it.
It is Burnt Island.
Yeah, Burnt Island Games. They're the ones who put that out.
Here's my concern. If I have to This This game seems like it might be fine. A small little game. But with all due respect, as someone who cannot draw themselves, I hate this art so much. It looks like a kid drew it. I don't I know that's mean. I don't know how else to say it. I just I think it's bad art. An angry kid. I like that.
I really appreciate the low ink version of this. I I really I mean, the artwork aside, I think it's really cool to see them doing a print and play where it's full color and then low ink color because usually in this we'll just see black and white or, you know, you want full color or black and white. instead of have a low ink option I think was really it was good and well done.
What does how does that work? Is it just a lot of colors removed?
It is. So like Yeah. I mean it it actually shows side by side and you'll see if you keep scrolling.
That's the low ink or that's
it is low ink. And so I don't know if you can see it on his screen. His screen's kind of dark but like there's some background color behind her face and her face is peach. Here it's not peach and so it takes out a lot of that um extra saturation. They're all sort of a little washed out for the sake of less ink being utilized. Okay. Okay.
Sure. I like that. Cool. I just don't like the look of the game whatsoever. I'm with you, Tom. I just In fact, when I first saw it, I'm like, "Oo, Gabe Barrett's game this month took a hit
cuz normally his artwork is superb.
Whoever he gets to do the artwork, this this isn't that
a lot of different ones." I think I think he works with he has a good taste for that.
Yes, he does. [clears throat] Stellar Ventures. Take control of interstellar corporations. Out with the aliens and crush your revivals that dominate the galaxy.
Stupid aliens.
This is from a new company, I guess. Um,
big game coming out with out there.
They have a They also have a quote from uh
Cole Cole Worly, right?
That's Yeah, Cole Worly, designer of Arc Rude and PAX Premiere.
That's a good quote. I mean, that's
it. But what does that mean? What does he mean by it's one of the best portfolio games? What's a portfolio game?
That is a If you don't know, this isn't for you.
I know. I mean, I don't I'm being serious. I'm not trying to be stupid.
Isn't Isn't a portfolio game kind of like saying like a coin game is a counterinsurgency game? A portfolio game, I think, is a type of game.
Is
I don't know what it means, but I believe that's what it is.
We will be corrected momentarily. Just you wait.
It looks like a railroad game.
Google it real quick. I I it really feels like a railroad stock 18x game.
Maybe that's what Maybe that's what a portfolio game is.
We're lost and confused. Help us.
Yeah, this seemed it was definitely giving me kind of the world order kind of vibes, you know, where you each have your own faction that's developing and working with each other and you're voting on rules together and you know what's this gonna what company has this imposed on them, which one doesn't? I mean a communal kind of decision making that's very very um asymmetric uh not like playerdriven competition.
Sorry I'm disagreeing with Mike. Mike Mike gave us a definition of portfolio. I know what the word portfolio means. I don't believe that's what Cole Worley meant in that statement.
I think like Mike Gleasio there said cube rails because they're also talking they've talked about cube rails in here a couple times
which again must be kind of like you're saying a train game type of thing but with stock I guess. Yeah,
I guess so. It must mean something to people that play coin games and cube rails and
crayon rail games like genres we are not invested in. That must be be what a problem.
By the way, Andrew S, who has play test with too many plays to count, you cannot play a game enough where you can't count the plays. There's definitely you can count them. I just want to give the heads up. I mean,
I can count to a thousand and you haven't played the game that many times.
Okay, well, calm down there. A thousand.
Whoa.
You're a big man.
All right. Dice dangle two or diced angle two.
Either one works. There's some unfortunate spacing between that D, the second D and that and that A because of the font.
Yes.
And it really bothers me. I am no graphic designer by any means, but I love I am a fan of visual clarity and simplicity and that is very annoying.
I am amused by their their their thing. It's like the dice set hidden in a real power relic of power, but if you came in worried that I'd be like, what's in that? There's something in that.
It's not very hidden. It keeps clinking and clanking and it's on your neck.
This also looks like something that you get like a Renfair.
Yes. You know, it's like right there next to that that dragon talon holding the marble.
Let's buy a set of these for Billy Bob Thornton and uh who was it? Angelie Jolie where they wore each other's blood around their necks.
They look kind of like that, right?
I would do that. I would fill this with blood
and then like keep the dice in it but like fill in the crevices with blood. I'm just saying first time you roll you're like, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
But you need No, you need like a clear side so it becomes like a magic eightball. You're like, "It's a 17."
Oh, I like that. Actually,
I do like that.
Blood has blood in it.
They They must have done a magic eightball, but for like a d20 in it.
Oh, good. I thought you were saying with blood. I was definitely thinking that. I was like, I don't think they've done that. No,
I'm sure there's some cultists that have done that. It's not.
I'm sure the blood would
No, not if you treat it, right?
Do you want to use our magic eightball?
We're not talking about this at all. There's really tiny dice that you'll never use. I hate these. But she'll pull them out just to show people they're there.
And they're worse on one finger. I hate that. They're so small.
They're worse to step on than Legos. Also,
I bet.
Also, when you drop one, you'll never fight it again.
Good luck.
No.
Also, that thing looks pretty big to hang around your neck.
It does.
I agree. That's
going to give you a neck cramp.
That's as big as that person's hand.
That's a big pendant. I mean, yeah. No. No.
You're going to bruise your sternum if you like have to, you know, run to the mailbox real quick.
18. Oh, 12.
All right, this is three different games. Trick takers expansion, the best of Neapolitan, which is by the way vanilla,
and zoom zoom zoom vroom.
Is all you guys? Cuz I have
expers here in the expansion is actually the one that's doing the best of the three because trick takers is a pretty well-liked game already. I haven't played it personally, but I know it's it's beloved. Uh, it's got like the funky animal sort of artwork from this company and they continue to put out content for us. So, that one's doing very well. The best of Neopolitan I looked into a little bit. It did not sound again like a particularly beloved one. In fact, and I and I looked into the game, it looks a little it looks a little mid is what I'll say to me.
Zoom Zoom Vroom is the one I'm the most interested in of the three. It is a reprint of a game called My Favorite Carrera, which came out from Japan a long time ago. It was based on an anime that was about racing, like Carrera as in Porsche. Um, and it is a really interesting trick taking game
in which you are trying to win just the last trick, but winning tricks before that one gives you speed and you will add your speed
like
not like
heroin cocaine.
No, like
Oh, I'm back out.
Zoom zoom vroom speed.
Why were you in
because it was unique in trick taking?
Yeah, got it.
There's another trick taker game coming up later on which is about heroin. We'll get to that one.
I'll think about it.
So, Zoom Zoom Vroom, it looks really cool. I like the look of it. It has that Hannah Barbara kind of vibe.
Yeah. What makes them bring a game to Kickstarter as opposed cuz I looked here. They only have four.
Yeah.
But they have many more games than that.
They have published some just straight up. I guess they're trying to gauge interest maybe.
Sure.
Anyway, I I like the my favorite Carrera game, the Zoom Zoom Vroom game. I think it's a good one.
All right.
Should check that one out.
Munchkin. This is what was on back
kit. That's what the M was for.
Munchkin.
Which one? Hold on one second. Boast or nothing. Is that
Boast or nothing? I'm guessing is the Neapolitan. I'm being corrected by Mike Delisio probably. Shut up. Okay. Um, anyhow, Munchkin, second edition.
Millions of games sold, billions of monsters slain. This one actually did, at first I thought this is not doing that great comparatively. Don't get me wrong, 300,000 6,000 backers, but Munchkins also,
as they said, they've sold millions of copies. But then I thought people who buy Munchkin aren't probably going to Kickstarter. You just want to go to the store and buy the newest Munchkin. I agree.
I think so. I was surprised how many changes there were.
There's not.
You played this live, right?
We played it live, right? We were
Oh, really? Okay. Because they make it sound here like there are a lot of changes to it. Well, he wrote them right here that he improves the balance of classes a bit. Some of the art was changed, kills some jokes that aren't funny today.
There's a a whole section on it where Yeah. How
design. So, this here makes it look like a lot.
Yes.
Is what I thought.
It plays almost exactly the same. The coins is the newest mechanis mechanism.
It's I would I would consider it a 1.5.
Okay.
Which is not bad. Again, I will give them this. It is a new version and it's backwards compatible.
And I think that's probably the right move to make because the first is so beloved, especially mass market. And so you don't want it because that's what I was going to say is I'm surprised at how different this one is. Um that's a very bold move for something that's so beloved in in mass market production. Yeah.
So, but if it's not that So, if it's not that many changes, that makes new more sense. Make it look new. Make it look fresh. book that made it look exciting for this game that you've played for 15 years, you know, kind of thing. Um, so that's interesting.
Yeah, it's it's still munch. If you don't like Munchkin, this will not change your mind. And if you like Munchkin, I think you'll like this. I don't think this will also be like you'll go, "Wow." Because to be fair, it's been a long time since I played Munchkin, but when I played it, I thought
this is the same game I've always played, right? You know, what's the difference?
I mean, how different could it be if it's backwards compatible for goodness sakes, right? Yeah, I went through the rule book and there's a list. They tell you to take out I think four cards from the original one and a lot of that is they they think that some of the original one has some tasteless jokes. There's more of that than anything else.
Well, it didn't age well.
Yeah. Well,
humor is timeless.
Indeed. All right. Mount Olympus Community College. Um
I love
an RPG, right?
Yes. I love the idea of the theme.
Why did I put this one in there?
I don't know. But it sounded like the theme is really funny. Maybe I just picked this because I was looking at it and I forgot I left it in the thing.
You don't want to cover it.
It's an RPG. Go ahead.
I say I think the theme was really interesting, but the more they talked about it, this is one that unfortunately I think they explain too much on the page that I was like, "Oh, wait. This isn't for me. I don't know what most of this stuff is. Bye." You know, I like found myself backing out. It definitely um
is more deep into TTRPG. Is it TTRPG or
Yeah, tabletop. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. Then um
I
So I thought it was but I thought it was a cute idea like oh you're the failed one. It's the community college of the
of the Mount Olympus. So I thought that was a fun setting.
That's cute. And that's that's enough to have some fun with that.
Yeah.
But it's also a very small RPG, I think.
Yeah.
Ask the Cats Oracle make a 100 decks that has 165 backers. Um
but she's only making 100. So 66 of those people are going to be really disappointed.
Bro,
I was really This is
Yes.
Go ahead.
No one wants to say
so pretentious.
What is a dog?
No, it's just
Okay. Well, people know I'm not a big fan of cats, so I'm trying. That's not have anything to do with my thoughts on this.
Dogs. Would you like it?
No. Then you can say this whole like I don't like cats. I'm scared what they say to me. And now they're like that message was lovely for every cats are not here to give us a deeper meaning of life. Cats are here because we are stupid enough to bow to their whims and bring them into our houses.
You hate him.
I hate everything about this project.
I I'm not far off. My weird my takeaway was more this person Lindsay who is making this uh there's some writing near the top that says that she like this was magical like she poured a lot of uh themselves hers I'm assuming herself I don't know I'm assuming you're
I don't hate the art by the way the art
into this project um and it was a magical thing to bring to fruition something else along those lines but if I'm not mistaken this is some artwork which I can't do so kudos and a deck of 36 I want to say cards with one word across the bottom nothing crazy just like standard words like angry cute desperate unknown is one of the words like
tarot deck is a tarot deck a catar
it's [clears throat] a oracle deck which is in the same vein is tarot, but they are different.
I don't know how. Don't ask me, but I do know that they are.
Oh, let me ask you this. Maybe you know this, maybe you don't know.
Are the words in an oracle deck, whatever you said, are they set or did this person pick those 36 words?
I don't know that. I I think that they're different, but again, I'm I'm very much guessing on that. So, if you if I had to give an answer, I would say I think that they're different on each oracle deck, but I I don't don't know for sure. Maybe you just turn you do you turn over a card. You're like, I wonder what we should do today. Turn over a card and it says journey. You're like, everyone get in the car.
You're supposed to It's supposed to be incredibly vague on purpose, right?
I think so because I know like tarot decks are more set, right? Like you always have certain characters in there which have certain meanings and certain ties and that. I think oracle decks are a little more flexible. Um, so again, I don't know if it's a set set group of words, but I do know it is more interpretive up to, you know, what you're pulling from it, that kind of stuff.
Come on. And I mean like one of the words is literally unknown,
right?
That's like the that's the version of like ask again later at this point.
Well, this is like Yeah, but people like the idea. It's working, so that's why it made the list.
Well, that
Hey, Trace Battle Mat. Traceable, reusable, curl-free DND mat. That the curl-free itself is pretty impressive.
I wanted I want this just to figure out what kind of material this is cuz it sounds like perfect. It's like it's you can fold it, but it's not going to wrinkle. It's not going to curl. It's erasable. I'm like, this is a magic material. What is it? So, I I want it just for that.
I like this concept a lot because the problem with these maps, you can buy them at every convention. They have big and I bought a few in my day. You have to draw everything on them, but if you can just put it over another map,
it's easy to say, "I'm in this square going to that square." It just works really well.
Do they all have the same scale? Like, is there a set scale for these maps? So, this would generically work.
Oh, that's interesting. I don't know what they say about the scale.
That's That's three quarters of a compliment, people. I'm going to take it as I'm interesting.
It Let's not turn something into something. It's not. Um
I'm going to flip over a cat. I'm going to flip over a cat card for you.
Yeah. Yeah. What's it say?
Try again.
Oh,
it looks like they're all the same scale.
Okay. Well, that's good. That's really good. So, yeah. I I
I would like to see this in person.
You know how you can do that? by not the button button. I'm not backing into this.
Okay. Is that all the games? No, we got another one. Ants and crumbles war at the picnic table.
This is the second Ant on the picnic table game that's come out recently because Bitewing just released one.
You said that there were good games coming next week. Maybe maybe the week after that.
He said that like a month ago, right?
Tell me there's good games coming.
I know
there's keep teasing.
Are we done with the games? We are done with games. I promise. This one looks pretty rough to me, too. I don't know.
I don't think this one looks as bad to me, but it also it looks just fine. It's like an abstract game with ants.
It seems like kind of an analog version of a
This one's doing really well, though, Z. Um,
yeah.
Who's the publisher on this one?
It's a new publisher. Um, I forgot what they're called, but it's it's a new one.
No, they made that weird fried potatoes thing.
They're called Fried Potatoes or something like that. But anyway, this is like
Of course they are.
They're called something.
We've seen Have we seen that one? The fried potato.
They're called fried potatoes. So, this is their first one. It's not.
Maybe it will work.
You like it? You like the look here, Tom?
I think the look is okay. I don't want to Don't Don't try to drag me in the
Actually, halfway down they're like And we did it with Hex's, too. And now it looks a little better.
Oh, that's funny. I think I would hate that. That's I like how like green this almost looks.
I probably down to go town. Down, down, down to go. There it is. That looks a little better.
Is that bees?
No, I think that should be bees.
It does show bees here in a sign. Keep going. I saw it with the things on it.
Bees. Keep going.
Bees and pizza, it looks like.
What? I saw it somewhere.
Hang on. Am I Am I looping here? I feel like I'm looping.
There it is.
You're right. It does look better with hex's.
Thank you. It looks like 18x ants.
Oh, those bees are going to beat up every ant. Those bees are really a weird mix there. Okay.
How do ants and bees feel about each other?
Before we go to off
the wall. Huh? Before we jump to some weird projects, let's first hear from Mark Street.
This Dice Tower Spotlight is brought to you by Logic and Lore. Constellations are out of alignment and the cosmos won't fix itself. In Logic and Lore second edition, Mice and Dragons race to restore order using pure deduction. You'll ask questions about two hidden cards you're not allowed to see while your opponent must answer truthfully. Every answer narrows the sky. Every clue sharpens the pattern. And when you finally commit to the alignment, one wrong card ends it instantly. Now the ravens have arrived and they brought variance. Two new modes twist the puzzle with fate, timing, and probability. In Starflight, information shifts like Starlight. Dice are rerolled as you move, and the value you land on changes what you can learn. You strike now or spin power to chase a better moment. And in Star Sprite, the future has choices. You pick a die to seek fortune, bend the odds when you dare, and earn power as you master every path the ravens reveal.
The logic remains, but the night sky no longer stands still. For more information, please check out the campaign over on Kickstarter. All right, let's take a look at some non-gaming projects.
What do we got? Do you want a tennis machine built into your backpack?
Nope.
This is making over a million dollar.
Tennis people got money.
Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. No, I think it's it's because if you're going to the courts, you know, then you're not It's a portable machine, you know.
I was going to say it has nothing to do with a backpack. It just means you can carry the machine on your back
like a backpack. But it's all the entirety of it is the machine iPad,
right? No, this isn't like can you put your racket in there too, right?
It's also not small. Oh, that is a big machine strapped to everyone's back in in these pictures,
but it means you can use any court, you know, you don't have to go to one that has this or have a private coach or, you know, it kind of brings out accessibility.
As far as I can tell, these these particular machines are used a lot by people who play tennis, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's pretty cool and clearly doing really well.
It's also seems to have the backing of a lot of important people in this industry.
Oh, that's interesting. Somebody says a dog toy. I could see myself taking this to a dog park. I don't have a dog. I just do it for fun. Just to like mess with people like like stop, lady. You're like, I have a hundred more tennis balls.
I like that. See how this goes.
Yeah. It wouldn't even be a dog park. It'd be a regular park where people are walking [clears throat] their dogs. Oh, best day of my life. It's going be great.
I like that. I like that.
By way, I found a park here with a ton of dogs. I'll tell you later.
Oh,
are they free?
All right. The first 27inch portable TV. Never been done before. No.
Monitor your world on screen anywhere.
I'm confused. Uh, is it
is is the thing here that makes this TV portable as opposed to other TVs you couldn't possibly move.
The fact that it has a built-in leather handle on the back.
No, no, no. It's that it's cordless. They should have just said a cordless monitor cuz they're all, like you said, all TVs are portable.
What they mean is you can just pick this one up and move it while it's playing and stuff. It has
got it. So, it's like the boom box version of a TV.
It's like an iPad that has a handle on it and doesn't do anything except for TV. No, you could like plug into it. So, like a PlayStation or something, but then like
I love that because the PlayStation needs power,
which is also
So, what's the point then of the TV not needing power?
You could hook up the switch to it.
Switch needs power.
No, not the switch runs on the battery. You could hook up to the TV.
Can you Do you have to have the docking station? Does that have to do power?
I don't think so. I don't know. I don't own this TV. I don't know if that would work or not.
No. It's the docking station. Do you own a docking station?
You own a switch. So you own a docking station. Switch light.
Yeah, it needs to be plugged in.
No, the docking station.
Oh, you guys should fight.
No, no, no. You do plug it in, but that's only because you use it to power the switch.
You don't need it to be plugged in to power.
I've never tried it. I wouldn't know.
I love how you guys are arguing about something you don't know. That's great.
Question. No, I'm I'm not saying I'm right. Question is, how much how long would this need to last for you to consider it?
27 days. like without being recharged.
Irational number. Come on.
You said to consider it. I mean I like
20. No. Like how long do you think it should last
on one charge for me to think it's worthwhile bringing along?
I don't think it's worth bringing along.
I would say
I really don't like it could charge I I could never have to charge this and I think it's a
I don't think it's great. I don't want to move a TV this big. I'm sorry. I could just bring an iPad.
Where am I going to be using it? Let's think camping. No. Enjoy outside. You don't want a TV. Uh long flights. If it's a long flight, they have them in the back or I have my you like that's what I'm saying. Like there's nowhere that you're gonna be. That's my point. Like there's no like everyone here is watching the same thing.
Enjoy first class suckers.
But there's nowhere that's that that's my exact point is there's nohere that it's like, oh, this would be good in that situation. No, because here's a laundry list of reasons why not. I could see that if you're if you're
I could see this being useful if you had a camper and you traveled to campgrounds and wanted to watch something at night when you were there outside.
If you are someone who loves camping, you have like a you know that kind of vehicle.
Let's be clear, glamping.
Yeah. If you like glamping and you you you drive around a lot
and you like the idea of going somewhere and being just out outside your camper on like a picnic table.
Yeah.
Yeah. And at that point, it doesn't need to last a whole lot. I'll take a couple hours. It's five, by the way.
Five is great.
That's a movie.
Well, they're like saying two movies. It says
power up to five hours of movies. That's what it says. Which means it's probably closer to four.
Yeah, that's that's what I'm saying. I don't think I would trust two.
Apple's going to lie. Everyone else does, too.
Yeah.
I first of all, I'd like to take umbrage at the fact that I get that if you go camping, you want to get out away from the nature, but if you go camping a lot, there's nothing wrong with sitting at a fire, but also maybe watching a movie
about camping. You're not invited to my fire.
I wasn't going to come anyway because God gave us hotels for no reason.
Invited anyway. This is just another reason
why you can't come to my fire pit.
Huh?
But I don't.
And the Lord said you shall stay at the
on the eighth day.
The Hilton.
The Hilton. Okay.
Histori.
Hey, do you not are you tired of using IGN and other very easily accessible websites to find out where stuff is in a video game? Yeah,
we tried having to Google it.
Yeah,
you can just get an app that tells you where they are or you can get you can find very specific apps for the game. Like there's like 40 apps just for Skyrim.
This is doing pretty well though, wasn't it? Doing okay.
It's doing okay. It's 10,000.
It's not bad.
Yeah.
I mean I I'm
I don't know that. Would you ever back an app?
No.
Cuz you know it's going to come out. If it succeeds, it comes out then you just buy the app. I think I have probably bought an app like three times in my life and that's only because
any app you don't mean backing one. I mean like I've only like bought three apps in my entire life and at least two of those had a free version that I used for a year and then I was like yeah it's worth having this without ads. Like I do not
don't ask me how many apps I've bought. It's it's more than
I bought three of them since it's been sitting here today.
Yeah. So it's like so to to that I cannot even imagine backing
you don't play video games on your phone right at all. I mean, no. Do I do any game on my phone?
Now I'm wondering how many apps I bought. I know I bought
probably a hundred.
Here we go. This is going to be great, y'all. Stay tuned for this riveting footage.
Vid, are you tired of YouTube?
No.
This is basically,
but if I was, this ain't the answer.
This This definitely sounds like Do you miss MySpace? Do you wish it was a video platform? Here you go.
I love it. This is so optimistic. It kind of breaks my heart with the optimism, honestly.
But also, he's calling it Vid Tube.
Yeah.
Copying YouTube except the word Vid and then this a symbol right next to it.
The whole thing looks very similar.
Yeah.
Why do we need funding? Business formation and legal. You're definitely going to need legal.
Also, the writing for this was pretty atrocious. At first, I read the first paragraph and it was like, oo, this is not great.
Yeah,
this is this is a nogo here. Sorry. This year was kind of because that kind of reminded me of that like school project, you know what I mean? Kind of thing like I have to create something like, you know, when we were in fourth grade and had to make a website, you know, like here's your first website. Here's your first project you have to do.
He needs 215,000, but he's got
a buck from himself
from Z Garcia
one.
I believe in him.
He hasn't canceled it yet. There's that.
All right. Do you need to
Somebody explain this to me.
Okay. So, it's a conspiracy diagram editor
for if you're like Joe's coming over, you're like, "How do I know Joe again?" So, you go over to your board and you're like, "Oh, Joe is the friend of Sally and Sally is Bob's wife
and Bob killed someone back in 198."
Is that Is that really what this is? Is he
I really think that's what this is for. keep track of how you know people. And
no,
the way it came across to me was more of a um a story organizing device like act one, act two, this is how my the characters in this thing I'm creating are going to interact
and so this person will be related to this person.
Oh yeah,
but we have these things. They exist actually. They're built into screenwriting.
Made up thing. I see. Never mind. Okay.
This is, you know what I mean? like this is not
I could see this if it's like as a brainstorming kind of thing like if you are writing a book or if you are something like that like it being a tool that you use but
this exists
does it you can get no
you can get an app that is just a pin board like this but also if you're writing you can just get a piece of writing software like final draft or something and they have this kind of software built into it. Ah this looks rough. $97 somehow. I'm impressed by the $97.
Oh, what is the pledge level? Because I want to say if there's only one person, that means they did $97. I did that math myself, by the way. Um,
ad free for a month, two bucks.
I just want to know like what level they black for here.
Oh, you want to go down to $97?
Is there a $97 pledge? Whoa.
This is hilarious. This is a $98. So, it was not that one.
It's about 98, it says. Well, maybe 97. It should right there. It's one backer right there. It's that one.
There it is. Where am I?
Right there. One backer. Yes.
And that one is also about 98.
All right. Okay.
So, when they say about 98, we now know 97.
97.
All right.
That's math, folks.
Feel good about that.
This app is going to work for about one month. That's zero months.
All right. Well, it's time to pick picks of the week. Let's start with Mike.
Hey there, everybody. It's Mike Delisio and this week I'm going to be picking the Portland Game Collective collection of card games. You've got a expansion to TrickTakers, a Trick-Taking game that I love a lot. And now you're getting new characters for that. You're getting a new version of a game that used to be called Boast or Nothing, now called Best of Neapolitan. It's a fantastic must not follow tricktaking game. And then you've got Vroom Vroom Zoom, I think, which is a remake of an a game called My Favorite Kurara RS. I think a racing themed tricktaking game. So, um I'm very excited. I've played two of the three games or at least I've played the base game of the uh expansion and very much wanted to play the new one. So, I'm glad to get them in these new uh editions. Uh Portland Game Collective does a really good job with their productions as well.
So, very excited about those. That is my pick of the week. All right. Well, let's check out what everyone else is going to choose. Um, I will say if there's anything Mike is teaching us all is that you don't have to be pretentious and hunt down all these weird little trick taking games. If they're good, someone will reprint them. Hang on.
Just be patient. Just be patient.
And then as a side note, I have no pick of the week. Thank you.
I don't.
I'm going to go with Tinur Tink Tinctura. Tinctura,
the very first one.
I thought about this one and I might play it, but
this one this one surprised me. I think I really uh like this realworld setting for it. It's kind of like Quacks of Aquedlinburg meets Potions of Azerland or something like that, you know, where you're out getting the different ingredients, but it seems like there's a lot going on. I like the secretly planning your day of the actions. And I I really like games where you have that time track, you know, for turn order. And so you're really having reminded me very much of um trekking through time, you know, where it's like how much time do I want to spend here because that's gonna affect my turn order, you And so this push and pull kind of you have this amount of hours, how are you going to spend them and when do you spend it which affects the turn order. I thought that was a really intriguing mechanism as well. So um yeah, I was charmed by this one for sure.
I think the the thing it reminded me of actually the most thinking about it now was uh luier probably where you have like a limited amount of time to like satisfy people in whatever they want or cure them in this case.
Uh
yeah, I think this is a good one. I am going to I am going to give it to uh the in Mike's uh eloquent words. Flume flume kabroom. Um because and I don't know about the other two like I you know the other two are fine but that one trick taking game I do enjoy. So
why am I not finding there it is. Gotcha.
There you go. So yeah, Zoom Zoom Vroom is of the three that like if I was picking one thing, I'm picking that as my pick of the week. And I like the artwork in it. I think that's a cute silly
I don't even know what it reminds me of exactly. It's got like a weird
old timey. Maybe
it's like instantly magical athlete to me.
The look, the artwork.
I don't know. Anyway, I like that game. So that's my pick.
All righty. Well, there you go. A bunch of different games out there. I'm sure they'll get better next week.
Come on.
Say every week.
Every week.
Every week.
I definitely have seen some good ones launched lately. So, who knows? And I'm not saying all these were bad either. I'm just none got me very excited about it. So,
there you go. No. Hey, it's okay to It's okay to not have a pick of the week.
All right. We'll see you all next time. We'll be back tomorrow morning with a live play of the new version of Rurick. Um until then, I'm Tom Basel. I'm Z Garcia.
I'm Camila.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Hey everybody, thanks for watching this video. If you like this review or whatever you just watched, wasn't it amazing? Uh, check out our channel, Dice Tower. We have all kinds of things. We review games. We do top 10s. We play games live. It's all about board games, but especially the people who play them. Check out Dice Tower YouTube channel.