Second Chances and DiceQuest Unboxing

0:01 Mitchell, so good to see you. Positively board gaming episode 80. Here we are.

0:08 Who' have thunk it, Jamie?

0:10 Do I look all hopped up on the sugars? Am I all Do I have like the crazy sugar eyes where I'm like

0:15 a little bit? I It's been a while since we talked on a Monday and so yeah, I get to see Monday Mitchell.

0:21 It's Monday, Mitchell. It's uh You know what? I shaved today, Jamie. Uh didn't trim the beard a little bit. I shaved the face. You know, my brother's wedding. I'm leaving this week. That's why we're actually doing this on a Monday as opposed to a normal day. Um, so thank you for being able to accommodate. So yeah, I'm going to New York for my my brother Lee. I always talk about my brother Lee and his girlfriend who then became his fiance Nicole pretty soon. By this time next week, it'll be his wife Nicole. As long as everything goes according to plan. I don't want to jinx anything. So uh, so yeah. So it's, um, I figured I' I'd practice with the shaving. I'd do it again for the wedding. So yeah, it's like a crazy week coming up. How about you? Do you let me ask you this? How affected are you on any on any given day knowing what is coming up? Because I tend to dread if I if I have too many you your person has a lot of things on your plate all the time. If I have a lot of stuff a plate on my a lot of stuff on my plate at any given time, it creates stress because of like, oh, it's I don't want to deal with it. It's too much. How do you deal with knowing that you have blank blah blah blah on any given day moving forward?

1:22 You know, usually I create my to-do list for the next day, the day before. And sometimes there is a little bit of sense of dread. Like I I had a pretty long list today, and I don't think I'll completely get through it, and that's okay. But there it seemed like a lot going into today.

1:38 Yeah.

1:38 But it's all worked out. Like I I've gotten done almost everything I need to do um today. And I found that there's I I have a new type of treat that I look forward to. This is a new thing.

1:47 Okay.

1:47 It's a very different type of treat. It may not be a treat for for some people and for me it wasn't at first, but Megan for her birthday, she got a treadmill

1:54 and I h I decided that I wanted to try to walk a mile on the treadmill, a brisk mile right before dinner every day, which doesn't sound like a treat, but I've made it a treat by usually putting something on the TV while I walk or listening to a podcast. And so I get to end the day just like listening or enjoying some sort of content and also feeling really good after a one mile walk. Like I I I try to do it pretty quickly on the treadmill in about 15 minutes or so.

2:21 I think that's fantastic, Jamie. And

2:23 I kind of had that to look forward to. Yeah. Go ahead.

2:25 Well, I thought in sort of in in terms of incentivization, I thought you were going to say you were dangling a chocolate on a on a fishing line in front of you on the treadmill. And then I was going to say, have you tried walking on the treadmill in Megan's shoes? But, you know, walking a mile in her shoes, but totally different metaphor there. But I I love that. And they talk about the benefits. By the way, people that you know, um, as Jamie said, welcome to positively board gaming. sometimes positively life and exercise and consuming treats. Um they talk about the benefits of walking and some people see it as a watered down form of exercise and it is anything but

2:56 keeping the body moving is so important. Just keeping the body moving and your systems moving, your circulation, your heart rate going and just walking a mile depending on the elevation, whatever you can handle, whatever you can tolerate. Even I think I might have talked about this before bodybuilders talk about losing those last few pounds just by doing calm regular walks. So it is a serious form for form of exercise for those that don't feel like oh it's not enough. It's one of those things that you do over time. It's a consistent form of exercise that you do little by little over time that has great benefits long term. So I love that you're doing that. I love walking myself. My daughter just got a they call the

3:32 these portable treadmills walking pad. Yes. A walking board a walking pad. Samantha has one in her room. So, I'll go in and she's watching YouTube in her video. She's walking. I'm like, "Good for you. That's awesome." Slides back under the bed, non-intrusive, and it's really, it's super cool. So, I love that. I like that you're walking.

3:47 We had one of those walking pads, actually, and then it got we had a recall notice where they were like,

3:53 we had this thing for a couple years, no problems, and then we got a recall notice saying

3:57 that a bunch of them had exploded and that we needed to not use it anymore. And so,

4:02 wow,

4:03 got a we upgraded. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully, you don't have that one. I think you would have gotten the notice by now.

4:07 No blowy upy. Did you get it on Amazon? I mean, because that's usually where I get my notifications from. Yeah, there Amazon is always great about that. Part of it is legal. They have to, but I I always like that they they do that. And by the way, um consuming treats, speaking of which we spoke of a little earlier a couple of seconds ago, if you see white powder on my upper lip, I don't have a problem. I might have had a couple of bites of a lizard tart before we started.

4:31 Okay.

4:31 Not that I needed it to to be able to hang out with you, Jamie. That's not the case at all. I don't need that.

4:36 A little little hit hit of a a tart. What do you got? Yeah.

4:40 Yeah.

4:41 What do you got? I went to the tart dealer on the street. Jack, I got Linds. I got the I got chocolate filled cookies. What do you want? Um, no. And between that and my lemonade. That's why I asked Jamie, but right before we started, am I all sugared up? Am I too sugared up for this show? Am I too exuberant? Um, [snorts] okay. Before we start,

4:57 you know, we used to do like I called it the before we start before we start. I want I want to bring that back for those of you who are not joined are new. And we had a lot of people in the comments saying they were new to watching that last episode where we said, "Hey, if you're new," and we explained some stuff. So, I like doing a little reset for our new Thank you. If you're joining us for the first time, um, what the hell? What the hell was I just going to say now? It's really bothering me. I forgot exactly what I was going to say. Oh, I want before we start, Before we start,

5:21 I wanted you to give an update. What can we share or not share? Is there any update on anything you can share uh with Braided Skies? Is that I mean, is there is there nothing new that we have to share that can only be revealed when people are listening to this? Is there anything?

5:35 There is nothing new about Braid Skies, but I do I do appreciate the slight call out to Stonemire Games because I I we actually have one other game that we're releasing at the same time on October 14th. It isn't a new game. It is a new to Stommyer game. It is the the last game in the Tokaido series called Namiji.

5:50 Yes.

5:51 And so um and so there's no secrecy around this other than exactly what's inside the Stommyer version.

5:56 Okay.

5:56 Really? So Namiji is a follow-up to the game Tokaido. use the one-way path mechanism where the current player is the one who's farthest back on the path. Instead of walking along a path in Tokaido, you are sailing around an island in the miji.

6:09 Okay.

6:10 Love that.

6:10 And it has uh it has some set collection that will be familiar to Tokaido. It also has some a spatial miniame and a push your luck miniame. So, a couple different actions or types of actions that are very different than Tokaido.

6:21 Um and the Stommyer version, which would be maybe the thing that I could I could reveal today.

6:27 Um oh, actually, no, this is a little bit early. This video will be going out this week. This is a little early. I haven't actually revealed, but I'll give I'll give you Mitchell a little sneak peek.

6:34 I guess one thing that I haven't gone into too much detail in is we

6:40 uh we made the board double-sided. It's a little thing. Uh the original board was single-sided. It was also a very big board. We shrunk it down to a more normal standard board size. And we made it double-sided so that there's one player count on one side of the board and the other the higher player counts on the other side, which do result in a slightly different board. more action spaces. So very small we did a lot of like tiny quality of life uh improvements like that and that was that was one of them.

7:05 That's awesome. And I you know what I it it itarkens back it reminds me how great it is that you are no long you are not just a designer or publisher but an avid gamer as well. And you're able to apply things to your games based on experiences at the table. And you think that would be a just a given but not every not every designer is an avid gamer. they're gamers and maybe they just focus on their designs, which is totally fine. But I think the fact that you absorb so many games and play so many games just for the joy and to learn different things, learn what different designers are doing and you take those experiences at the table and you're able to apply them to your design as well. So that's something where I think your your avid being an avid gamer really benefits you as a designer and publisher as well. Just thought I'd throw that in.

7:49 Thanks. Yeah,

7:49 little tap in with you, Jim. You know,

7:51 I have a lot to learn from other designers and publishers. I love that it's I get to just learn from them for the rest of my life. I think I think it'll be an ongoing process.

7:58 We never stop I was thinking about this today. We never we never stop learning and we should never we never should really because that curiosity I think that curiosity keeps us going. And that's the way I describe it. Having a curious mind

8:09 just wanting to absorb things, wanting to learn things, wanting to glean different points of view. And you only learn that by having

8:16 conversations, by reading, by engaging. And even if it's that's why I I encourage people to speak with people and engage people that don't have the same views that you have. Um for some people that could be difficult. It could be challenging. But at the same time that's how we learn. And maybe you absorb something or have a takeaway in that exchange that changes both of your opinions. You don't know. So, uh, I like the the curious mind thing is has been sticking with me lately and the importance of that in terms of always, you know, always being mentally aware and into again as I'm aging, I'm I'm putting emphasis on these kind of things too to remind myself to always be curious and to always engage and to keep myself sharp and always always learning and getting a little better. Now,

8:58 I heard I was listening to a podcast this morning while I was working out and uh the person on the podcast was talking about how in their company they asked they asked the question why three times in a row a lot when they're having discussions. So, it might be like uh Michel, you know, we usually re record on Fridays. Why do we do that? Um and sometimes there's no like wrong there's no

9:20 Right. Right. Well, because we're available. Well, why? Well, because I'm actually doing this other thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, why or why are we why is that? And sometimes when they go that three levels deep, they discover they uncover something or discover something interesting that makes a product better or process better or they can serve their customers better. And I I hadn't thought about that, but I I like asking why once, but asking why three times sometimes, I think, you know, there might be something to that. And if you I mean if we think a little deeper on this, if we think a little deeper on this now that you brought this up, people I think are most likely to give a more pleasant or appropriate response when you ask a question, a conversational response. How are you? I'm great. Well, why are you great? Oh, and then you start to think, well, am I just saying that because it's a thing to say to end a conversation to stop because I or do they really want to know? Okay, I can go a little deeper.

10:07 Well, this is how I feel about well, why? What happened? Oh, cuz I think we're so programmed to give a a polite answer or a typical answer. I'm doing great. How are you?

10:16 And most of the time people don't want to necessarily hear how you really doing. They just want to be pleasant and say, hey, how are you? You really want to know what what a week? They're like, oh crap, I'm sorry I asked. But it's sometimes it really takes that second or third question to let people know, no, no, I don't want the pleasant easy answer. I want to I want the real I want the real stuff. And I think by continuing to ask, you will un you will you will, you know, unearth that.

10:39 And it takes sometimes it takes three, you know.

10:41 Yeah. I I really really like that.

10:44 All right, we're done.

10:47 Yeah, there we go. Yeah, we did it.

10:50 Um Well, well, is it a great segue into what you wanted to talk about this week? Because um I'm curious because I'm I'm trying to keep my mind sharp. I have a curious mind. What would you like to talk about this week, Jamie? In a way, it kind of does segue into um what I was going to talk about. This is something I I briefly touched upon on a recent live cast on my on our Stommyer Games Wednesday live cast at 10 a.m. Central time. Um I thought I'd bring up some games that I gave a second chance to. So, with the the why why or the curiosity was

11:21 why? Yes. Something about the games intrigued me the first time I played them and maybe didn't completely hooked me, but I whether it was I had heard good things from other people or I owned the game and I wanted to give another chance or whatever the reason I gave these games a second chance and I'm glad I did. This is not always the case. There are certainly some games that I played where the second chance kind of solidified that it wasn't a game for me, but this is positively board game so I'm not not going to talk about those games.

11:46 Right. Yes. Exactly. Um, I'll just name the four games up front and if there's one one or two that maybe intrigue you or that you resonate with a second chance, yeah, we could talk about that a little bit more. But the four the most recent was Takino, Castles of Burgundy, Everdell, and Datoms. All for four different reasons I I returned to these games. Did any of those any do you know any of those? Any of those ring a bell?

12:08 I know all of them.

12:10 I know the rules to two of them. I've played one of them.

12:12 Okay. I'm very curious. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts about Everddale though because that is such a widely and again when they say it's a widely widely loved people that that's that's percentages. It's not individual. It's it's you know subjective not objective. So I'm very interested in hearing your point of view. So please come on Jamie. Why?

12:30 Well this also happens to be one of my most recent crowdfunding backings. Not ever not the original Everdell but they have a long series of games and the most recent one intrigued me so I backed it. Okay. But the the original Everddale drew me in because the box is stunning. I think it's one of the best board game boxes out there. It's by Andrew Bosley. It's actually what made me reach out to Andrew and say, "Hey, would can we work with you, too? Can you do tap? Can you do great skies now? We're doing

12:53 um so it drew me in. Uh and then I It's a game where you control the pace of your game quite a bit. It's a worker placement game and uh you could just place both of your workers and that could be the end of your season and you go on to the next season. You your game your entire game could be done rather quickly in Everddale. And that was the case the first time I played. I didn't think I didn't realize that it's the type of game where you are trying to ek out one more turn external to the workers that you're placing. like you need to place the workers strategically, but at certain times you can gain there are benefits that you can gain and even like free plays that you can gain by not placing workers. And this happened with me with a couple games where I didn't realize it was the type of game where you're trying to like squeeze out one more thing so you can take another [clears throat] turn and prolong the round rather than

13:46 accelerating to or or just like doing the standard thing. And so that really like that first experience with Everddale was very tough. It was very fast for me.

13:53 Okay. Uh, and so I was like, but I I've heard such good things. And so I returned to it, realized it was that type of game and I loved it a lot more.

14:00 I like that.

14:01 Yeah. Can you relate to any of that with Everddale or any other games where you, you know, and I think again I think it comes down to um expectation. So much of it has, you know, and and again that's like why I always make the analogies about movies. You could, you know, someone, you could go see a movie and have three different, four different, five different experiences based on what you thought, what you felt, what people told you, what people commented on before you went. Same movie, the only thing that changed was your expectation or your feelings about it going in. And I think yes, and I think there are several games uh where I thought and and it cut both ways. Certain games where I was like, "Wow, I can't believe I thought it was this, this, and I'm loving it." Or like, "Oh, I thought it was going to be that. Oh, I don't know if it's for me, but I want to play it again because maybe I'll go in with a different point of view next time. And like you said, it just changes the way you're looking at it. Um,

14:50 with I call it vanilla Everdell, bass Everdell, because there have been so many iterations, so many versions of it. Um, it really resonated first time I played it. I didn't know I didn't know anything about it when I first played it and I loved it. I loved the world. I love the cuteness of it. And then once I got past the cuteness, I was like, "Oh, there's a really cool juicy kind of game under here that that's sort of, you know, it's sort of like when you look at Root."

15:10 Yeah. Yeah. And you see like the cute little woodland creatures, you're like, "Oh, this is an intense war game. This is like no joke. The creatures are cute and adorable and the artwork is beautiful, but this is no joke." And you sometimes have to learn the game four different times because you have to learn what depending what faction you play, they play it's talk about the definition of asymmetry, right? You have to It's almost like relearning the game each time to play that different group, right? So, I think it could be seeing that cute cuddly world can be kind of misleading when you realize the depth of the game underneath. But, uh, yeah. No, I totally get that. I understand what you're saying.

15:42 Yeah, that I'm trying to think if there's one more that I should talk about. Wait, is there one that intrigues you more than the others? Takeno, Castles of Burgundy.

15:50 Yeah, talk about Yeah, talk about Castles of Burgundy because that one

15:52 Yeah, that's a major game. Yeah,

15:54 lot going top 10 on board game at this point or right up there. A lot of people love this game.

15:58 And the new version helped it a lot, too. The new deluxified version that Awaken Realms did was incredible.

16:02 It's You're absolutely right. Yeah, it's a it's a beautiful version. I think my second play of it came before that version, but I'm glad that version exists. I have played it. It is lovely. I think the first time I played it, I was um I well like many games, I didn't know what I was doing, but also I was a little underwhelmed by the the aesthetic of it. It it was is very traditional Euro game,

16:24 right?

16:24 A lot of uh like beiges. I think there's like three different hues of green that kind of blend together. You're not sure which one is which.

16:31 Um

16:32 and there are a lot of abilities. There are a lot of buildings that have special abilities and and some once you know now that I know this once you know those abilities the game can really shine because you can kind of every game feels different. You're using this ability and a couple different combin comboing them together. But in the original game there wasn't really a good reference guide for those abilities. It was asking you to remember a lot of different things and you're constantly going back and forth between the tiles and the reference guide. So it was just maybe it was just a little overwhelming. Outstanding welcome a little bit.

17:00 I thought maybe okay this is one of those popular games that just isn't for me. That's fine. But then I did give it another try and I'm so glad I did because I I was able to then see how clever of a game it is and how much freedom it gives you. Like I I like games that give you a lot of different cho choices as to what strategic paths that you pursue. And it also just feels good to fill up your your little your your hex grid in in Castles of Burgundy. So I'm really glad I gave that one a second chance. And I I it was a good reminder to me that sometimes popular games are popular for a reason. And even though I may not get it the first time, it's worth maybe taking a breather and coming back to it maybe with different people even. Maybe it's the people, the circumstances on the player count and giving it another try. And I'm I'm so glad I did with castles Burgundy.

17:44 Me, too. All right. I'm going to ask you for the next 20 seconds

17:48 to say something lovely about me, which I won't know until I watch this video when it actually goes on. I need 20 seconds. You'll understand why. Give me 20 seconds and start your ramble about me now.

17:58 Something lovely about Mitchell. Well, I really do. I mean, Mitchell talked today about curiosity, and I I really do love Mitchell's openness and curiosity about people, about the world, about other games, about about media. As you all know, Mitchell doesn't play every game. None of us do, but he's always curious about the games that I've been playing. And here he is.

18:16 Ah, thank you. That was so sweet, Jamie. I don't know what you said, but I'm looking forward to seeing it. So, the reason I did that, there was a reason I did that. And for people that don't know, you know, we're on camera together doing this, and we do it both as obviously if you're listening on the audio side, it's an audio podcast. If you're watching it on the Stone Rardium's YouTube channel, it's a video podcast and you're able to see both of us do our thing. So, I really I changed the lighting this week a little bit. Um, I have like a light on me directly and so if you could see like shininess, it's not because I'm like, you know, sweating like 12 people, but it's because I have a light right ahead of me that of my bald head. I'm not going to put makeup on. My movie days, you know, I'm not doing that right now. I don't have a makeup artist with me. As I'm sitting here noticing the shine, I'm kind of like, uh, I realize I am getting warm. And I'm like, huh, am I going through the changes? I'm in my 60s. What's happening to me? And this something about this particular shirt. I would have changed my shirt, but that would have taken like 30 seconds. And I didn't want to, you know, have you ramble on by yourself and feel lonely. I wanted to come here, make you not feel, oh my god, I have to perform. So, I came back with I would have changed it. Something about there's certain shirts. I know it's sometimes the material, the fabric that make you feel warm. I was starting to get really warm and it was warm in the office. So, I had to go turn on the air while Jamie was waxing Repsotic about one of my wonderful qualities that I have no idea of which he speaks. Um, so thank you for doing that. Thank you for giving me the 20 seconds. And you know, me me shamelessly asking for a compliment was just a bonus. I um going back to what you were saying about uh about Castles of Burgundy.

19:46 Yeah. It's interesting, and again, we've talked about this a lot, how visuals

19:52 will also set us an expectation of some kind. If we see a game that's too gray that conotes, well, is this going to be a a dull game? Is it going to be this? And it's very interesting and it's not it is judgy, but I think it's a human reaction that we have to color, to sound, to smell, to all of our senses. We get information, sensory information, and we have a reaction to it. And a lot of it is visual and that's why and again that doesn't mean a game can't be like visually like okay it's a lot of grain and base pieces but what a great game. Conversely there have been games that have like magical pieces and you're like but man is it pretty to look at. So I mean we have different reactions and different expectation but it's nice when you have a game that plays beautifully that's so much fun and has so much depth to it. It might look a little vanilla on the outside, but then they give it a deluxification and then it's the perfect beast. Then it's beautiful and it's, you know, um there was one game that came to mind for me that I now it's escaping me, but I was going to ask if Oh, I know what I wanted to ask you. You were talking about like being, you know, having a lot of things going on in a game with Castle Burgundy. Great example of that.

21:01 I can only imagine you've played a feast for Odin.

21:04 Oh, yeah.

21:05 Your first time. Were you completely over because a lot of people suffer from AP in gaming not knowing what to do on their turn and okay that stands for analysis paralysis where you're paralyzed by either you don't know what choice to make or too many choices and you're sort of sitting there and people are like take your turn you're like I'm trying I'm all locked up did you have any of that when you try to piece for Odin because I see the board and I see the choices and I see everything you can do and I'm like I don't know what I would do with that. So it looks like a great game but I don't know how I'd react to it. I think I you talked about expectations earlier and I think I went into that game knowing that there were going to be a ton of actions and that I wasn't possibly going to understand them and that I just had to choose a few of them and give it a try.

21:42 Okay.

21:43 And that one and it's interesting because sometimes games have that and when I go in with that expectation

21:49 I am ready for it and as I'm playing I'm like oh I'm enjoying the thing that I'm doing but I'm also curious about these paths untaken and I want to play again. And that was the instant response I had to a future road and I was like I am excited to play this a second time, right? Whereas in some of these games I do almost you talked about dread earlier slightly dread. I'm like okay I know I need to play this again to get it but am [snorts] I going to like is it going to be another three hours that I don't actually enjoy all that much and fortunately these games that I'm mentioning yes I did enjoy them a lot the second time and I'm I'm and I played them several times since then as well. you know, uh, you are going to you are going to give me the courage to bring up a game

22:27 that everyone loves that didn't hit with me at the table, but there's something about it that I think I missed and maybe I didn't do a good enough I didn't get a good enough rules teach or I didn't understand it enough. A game that everyone I know loves. And when I sat at the table, I was like,

22:44 why is this not hitting with me? Because from everything I heard, it should and I have to give it another chance. And that is vindication. Vindication has aspects of it of all sorts of games, different sort of games that I love. It has a little bit it feels a little bit RPG-ish just because there's there's sort of redemption and a questlike feel to it. Uh even though it's it's a more traditional Euroype game. Um but I I I don't know what it was, but when I when I left the table, I was like, "Oh, I I think I'm missing something. I didn't get it." Have you played Vindication?

23:16 I haven't. I I must have been kind of in the same boat as you. And so I wonder if this is a good question for a listener. I'd like to try it again.

23:22 Share share your favorite thing about Vication to see maybe what we're missing because I did play it once a long time ago.

23:27 Yeah.

23:28 I I I liked the things I was seeing. I like that you can get an animal companion. I like that we were like overcoming a personal

23:35 uh uh uh shortcoming.

23:37 Yeah. Redemption. It's a game of Yeah.

23:39 And it was an interest Yeah. I I don't know what it was. And I and I want it's one of those games where I really want to get into it and I know I I know there's something off about either the way I learned it or again it could be like maybe it's not the right day for that game. Maybe the way you were feeling. Maybe you're not in the right mood to absorb all the information necessary to get oh okay I get it now and I and it's something I really want to I really want to like and I really want to get into and I just didn't get it at first but I I will get it. If you've tell if you're like Jamie said, if you've played Vindication and like I said, everyone I know loves this game and I know I will love it. I just, you know, tell us about it a little bit and uh I I'm definitely going to give that a second play because that's one for all intents and purposes I really should like based on everything I've read about it. So there you go.

24:22 Yeah, we'll see if we get some some thoughts in the comments and if anyone else does have a game that they gave a second or even a third chance to Yeah. and then realized, okay, wow, this actually really is a game for me, let us know in the comments.

24:32 I love that. Now, Mitchell, I I want to give you a second chance to uh share your your topic of the day.

24:39 Why? Just kidding. Okay, so little call back. Make sure you're all still listening. Haven't tuned us out yet. If you didn't get the reference, you have to go back and listen to the beginning. Um okay, so this is um always a fun day when a Kickstarter comes in.

24:56 Oh yeah.

24:57 And this is one where I hadn't heard about it for a while and I was okay. I had other games coming in and it's okay that I didn't hear about this for a while and all of a sudden usually you'll get an update like hey it's on the game's on the water so in the next four to six weeks you should start getting a thing and make sure you pay the whole thing. Didn't didn't get any of that. I was like, and I remember a few a few months ago thinking, I wonder what happened to Dice Quest and all of a sudden I get a package. And by the way, I think people will start noticing Amazon is starting to do game fulfillment.

25:33 They're starting to do Kickstarter crowdfunding, you know, gamefound, whichever platform you're using. They're starting to do fulfillment. So,

25:40 we actually did it at the very beginning many, many years ago. We did it. But they Amazon struggled to differentiate between a game box being something that should be protected. Like they would they would ship stuff with just the label like on the game box.

25:54 Oh, no.

25:55 And and uh so away from it. Yeah. But hopefully they're getting back to it with better packaging.

26:00 Yeah. Yes. They they it's it wasn't up to the standard of a traditional when you get something that shipped from one of the traditional um suppliers, one of the typical distributors. I mean, it wasn't it wasn't quite that good, but it was it was okay. Nothing happened. It was good.

26:17 Um, so Dice Quest, um, is a dice pool building game with a little bit of like an RPG action dungeon crawl feel to it.

26:27 Okay.

26:27 And its thing is you can play cooperatively, you can play competitively where you are trying, you were using your characters, which you can build up with abilities, with weapons, so it has like an RPG feel. um building up your dice pool and using that dice pool to go on quests. And how you do on those quests based on how you've upgraded your characters, abilities, and your items uh will determine either whether you win as a group or win individually if you're playing competitively. So, I thought we'd do like a little unboxy boxy together.

26:57 And you could see uh you know what? Let me take the plastic off first cuz sometimes especially with my new head shiny lights. Um I don't know why I why I decided I was I was doing uh your tech report. It's a Sirius XM show I have uh weekly on uh channel 167. It's on every week. It's been 15 years. It's pretty cool. Go check it out. Um we were doing something and Mark has a great setup, great home studio and he has incredible lighting with some colored LEDs on the wall. It looks super cutting edge like you'd see any great tech YouTuber have. And I was like, I can put a fancy light on my head and look shiny, too. Mark didn't look shiny. I do. He has a full head of hair. God bless him. He He's like you. He wasn't going to look shiny on his head. Only only me. So, here is Dice Quest.

27:36 Dice Quest. Okay, cool.

27:39 You know, the the characters have like a little Santorini vibe to them a little bit. You see what I'm saying?

27:43 Yeah.

27:45 And the back actually shows you the board. And this is uh I think even in the regular version, not necessarily the deluxified crowdfunding version. I think it has a neoprene board, but I think this might also you know what? I don't even know all the deluxified bits that are in here. It's going to be a surprise to both of us.

28:00 Let's find out.

28:01 Let's find out. So, I'm opening up the box. If you're listening to us, thank you for tolerating a visual podcast in audio form. So, okay. So, I have all these, you know, I have the boards to punch out, right? with all the little tokens. But I think I think I actually have the deluxified bits for that. That I think I do have. And this looks like individual.

28:23 I don't know if these are player boards that hold your cards because there are different types of cards you can hold. So that's right there. Oh, nice manual that sort of has the same artwork that's on the cover. Oh, wow. Jamie, look at the insert. Beautiful insert.

28:37 Oh, that's really nice insert. Yeah.

28:39 Yeah. That has the uh

28:40 the neoprene mat. It has Dice Quest embossed on the plastic cover for the insert. Oh, look at this. So, we have a neoprene mat. Oh, neoprene playerboards. I don't need to pop those out.

28:51 Every player board is either I don't know if it's natural rubber neoprene. I have to look.

28:55 I have to look because I don't want to miss misspeak. So, it's not neoprene. It's like, okay, could be. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. And then feel very similar.

29:03 They feel they do. Oh, wow. Jamie Jamie Jamie. Oh, Jamie. Jamie. Jamie. Okay. So, I don't I don't think I have to pop out those tokens because I have these wonderful acrylic tokens.

29:14 Oh, nice.

29:14 Uh, they're really nice.

29:16 Almost. Yeah.

29:16 Yeah. Yeah. They have a really nice nice feel to them. And Oh, hello. Oh, sucker for metal coins.

29:23 Oh. Oh, those are beautiful metal coins.

29:24 These are beautiful metal coins. They They have like a nice little patina to them. They're

29:28 It looks like they have some shading on the inside to give that old coin look like they're rusted and inking. Yeah, inking. I like when you use pretty words, Jamie. They have inking on them. Yep. Okay. And then, oh, wow. These are big wooden bits, too. So, they're mixing up the They're mixing up the materials, too. Okay.

29:47 Which is also kind of cool cuz there's some acrylic. There's some neoprene/rubber. And then we have wooden bits, too.

29:53 We have some wooden bits in here. And then, of course,

29:56 Oh, boy. Jamie, look. Look at the cards.

30:00 Holographic like holographic cards.

30:02 Yes, that's really cool. some foil cards mixed in

30:05 and Okay, so there's that. There's that. Hold on. Oh, the dice have like an iridescence to them.

30:12 Oh, those are beautiful custom dice,

30:13 aren't they? Beautiful custom dice. And everyone uses them for their character progression, for their pool. And Oh, wow. Even more even more acrylic tokens and wooden tokens. Jamie, this looks beautiful.

30:26 Wow. So, as I said, at its heart, it is a dice pool building game/adventure game using the dice [clears throat] pool to go on adventures with characters that are upgradable to beat said quest either cooper cooperatively or competitively. And

30:41 which way do you think you'll play it first? Do you have an inclination?

30:46 Normally, I would always say cooperatively first, but for some reason, I'm not feeling that with this. I could go either way. I'm happy doing it either way. Most of the time I'd rather play stuff that's cooperative. Although, you know, when I when we played when we played Hell of a Deal, the poker game, you know, I told you my my buddy Jack, I play with Jack and Eric, and Jack's a professional poker player. He goes to the World Series every year, does his thing,

31:10 but again, you'd think that would be make it easier to play with someone. It's not when someone knows something really well. So, even playing cooperative, okay, this will be fun. It'll be cooperative. And of course, it was still an amazing time. It's great. And I love Jack and but when you're that good at something,

31:24 there's a certain expectation baked in. I told you this with like the gang, right? So, and I think I I disappointed Jack. I told you in like game three, it's like, well, if you had done this, we could have. I was like, you have to understand I don't have the poker brain that you have. I'm getting there. I will get better, but I don't have professional poker brain, so I don't see the game. And that's the whole thing. It's like it's like if someone's watching hockey with me, not that I was a professional hockey player, but I I see the game differently than someone who is not a hockey fan, who has not played, I look at it differently and I see different things. I don't watch the same way.

31:57 It's the same thing with poker. Anything that you're really really good at or something you know really really well, you don't see it the same way a person who's a novice or new to blank would see it. You just don't. And that's no fault of either one of you. It's just like a different you're at a different level. So with with the hell of a deal cooperatively, I'm afraid again I'm going to disappoint Jack. So maybe competitive is better.

32:17 At least then he'll be he'll be happy if I mess up instead of being sad. So I want to, you know, I want to have give him the gift of joy and take the stress for me out of out of the equation as well. So maybe I'm better off going competitively with my group. I don't know. I don't that way I'm not disappointing anybody but myself. So there we go. Let's go with that. Um but yeah, this game looks And this is by Sky Tair Games. Um

32:38 they're in California, I think.

32:39 Yeah. Yeah. So, um, this is this is super cool. I'm very very The game looks beautiful. Uh, I can't wait to play. And yeah, this is like I like that we're seeing different form factors of boards, too. You mentioned the

32:51 uh the size of the board um for your new release. Um, and how, you know, it's a little smaller than the original. And I I also like experimenting with different shapes of boards,

33:00 which is great because I have a longer table. So to have a playboard that's more rectangular than it is just like large square sort of feeds into my play surface a little bit better. So it's it's kind of cool because I've been playing a I don't know about you. I've been playing a lot of table hogs. It's not I'm not a put down because I love have a lot going on in a big board that you can look around

33:20 but I've been playing a lot of table hogs to the point where I have to get up

33:24 and walk around just so I can see different perspectives of what's happening to give me a better idea of what to do. and sometimes it's not even my term and I'm looking around. I'm not trying to spy. I just want to see because it's so big.

33:36 Um, so yeah. Um, so yeah, there we go. This is uh this is something I'm I'm really looking forward. Dice Quest has been something I've been thinking about for a while and uh I will I will have my my full report of all the joy it brought me on an episode near you.

33:50 And for those who don't know who maybe haven't joined us in the past, Mitch unboxing is something that Mitchell really really loves. Like Mitchell does this usually on his own time. So, it was a true like special peak behind the curtain to see it in real time here. Like this is one of your favorite things about games, right? To like take some time and

34:05 I do. I love this. And I sit there with I sit there with the with rule book and I read and I get excited and I look at all the components. I sort of teach myself as I unbox it. And don't worry if you're if you are new to this. We don't normally do unboxings, which I know it's like it's like if we're doing this on the radio, it's like, "Oh, what a great radio bit. You unboxing something visually. Yay. Hope you and Jamie had fun." Um, so no, we don't normally do this because again, we know there limitations if you're just listening to us, but hopefully you could hear in the descriptive phrases and the joy that it gave us all. Uh, hopefully that was worth something and it made you want to go take a look at Dice Quest online and see if it might be a game for you.

34:39 Oh, Jamie, I don't know what I'm going to do. The unboxing's gotten out of control again. It's okay. It gives me I really enjoy. It used to be like a post-operative thing for me when I was like stuck in the house or stuck in bed and you know Tracy can you bring in the new game that came in and she'd drop this 300lb box on my on the bed and I'm opening it and I go to sleep with a token stuck to my face or under my armpit. You know it's not attractive but it brought me joy during a tough time. So that's got to be worth something.

35:05 I'm glad it does and I'm glad you shared that joy with us today. I guess I'd love to hear if someone else in the comments if anyone out there has unboxed something that brought them joy recently. Let us know about that. What what came that was. Yes. And and talk about, you know, what we talked about earlier, second chances. If there's a game you would like to give a second chance or something we talked about that you have a great positive point of view about, uh, let us know. And again, this wasn't like, you know, talking about games that didn't hit with me. This was not a I want to call this. I I'm calling it out because it's something I know I'm going to like. And I wanted to make sure that, again, I think for me, it was more of a rules teach thing. I don't think I comprehended it well enough to if you don't understand what you're doing, you can have a not so great experience with any game with the best game. Um, so it's really not a comment on the game. It's more a comment of where you know where did I fail this game because I have a feeling I'm going to love it. So yeah, I'd love to hear from that in the comments.

35:59 Well, Mitchell, this has been great. Thanks for your time today.

36:03 Thank you, Jamie. I look forward to doing this. Uh, and I will, you know, I will have a new sister-in-law the next time we speak.

36:08 Yeah, I hear about the wedding. Yeah, I will tell you everything. I will keep the wine away from my dad. I think that's going to be my my job. We'll keep my dad uh we will have minimal exposure to the wine because who knows what could happen. It could be anything could happen Saturday. That's what it's going to be. And if nothing else, it'll make for a great story.

36:26 Well, we'll leave on that cliffhanger what will happen with Mitchell's dad and the wine on the next episode of Positively Morgan. Bye.

36:34 Take care, Mitchell.