Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 430

Live from Winter rabbitcon 2015! Boardgames, Oculus Rift Stuff, Video Game Stuff and more!

Live from rabbitcon 2015!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Mysterium links (thanks to IlleBellus):

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps

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Show credits

Sponsors: 
Music credits: 

The Robot Will Save Us - Cryonaut - http://www.cryonautmusic.com/ - 21:17

Bocuma Roygbiv (Boards of Canada Cover) - Cryonaut - http://www.cryonautmusic.com/ - 41:42

They’ll Be Machines - Cryonaut - http://www.cryonautmusic.com/ - 1:01:13

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

Tweeted it yesterday, I think, but Mysterium is scheduled for a 3Q2015 US release, per its BGG page.

Chinatown was wonderful; the clincher for me was a tiny deal I made with Graham in the last possible moment that netted us each $10,000 (the smallest denomination in the game), which brought me into a tie with Eatslemons for the lead. The thing is, the amount of cash each player has is semi-hidden information; you can ask, but you can't really go over and count their hand until the end of the game.

Chimay is delicious. That is all.

Just listening to the part of the podcast about "Mysterium" (yes, that's a terrible name - does the Italian name traslate to "The Sixth Sense"). Anyway, just like he said he would, Shawn forgot to add a link in the show notes to the game.

Here's the boardgamegeek link:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113997/mysterium

And here is the link to the physical game's site:

http://igames.ua/en/mysterium.html

IlleBellus, I came here to ask exactly about that.

Also, Certis... I'm not the beer drinker you're looking for. I don't even drink beer!

Any chance we can get the tater-tot casserole recipe in earnest? As resident nerd chef I'm always looking for new LAN party recipes.

Tater-Tot Casserole

1 package frozen Tater Tots
1 lb. ground beef/ground turkey
1 med. onion
1 can Veg-All (or other vegetable, i.e. peas and carrots)
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
1 can Campbell's cream of something else soup (i.e. onion, asparagus, etc.)

Brown ground beef/ground turkey and chopped onion. Salt and pepper to taste.

In casserole dish (9x13), layer the bottom with a single layer of tater tots. Drain ground beef/turkey and put on top of tater tots. Drain can of vegetables and put on top of meat. Put another layer of tater tots on top. In a separate bowl combine the two cans of cream soup. Pour over the tater tot casserole.

Bake at 350ºF for approx. 1 hour.

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Growat wrote:

Tater-Tot Casserole

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Sounds like great comfort food. I wonder how this would be with sweet potato tater tots?

padriec wrote:
Growat wrote:

Tater-Tot Casserole

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Sounds like great comfort food. I wonder how this would be with sweet potato tater tots?

I think it'd carry over pretty well. There was also a gluten free version of this made (using different branded soups), which was delicious as well

Just thought I'd share with the gang ;
Play 2,314 classic games in your browser for free
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games/v2

Growat wrote:

Tater-Tot Casserole

1 package frozen Tater Tots
1 lb. ground beef/ground turkey
1 med. onion
1 can Veg-All (or other vegetable, i.e. peas and carrots)
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
1 can Campbell's cream of something else soup (i.e. onion, asparagus, etc.)

Brown ground beef/ground turkey and chopped onion. Salt and pepper to taste.

In casserole dish (9x13), layer the bottom with a single layer of tater tots. Drain ground beef/turkey and put on top of tater tots. Drain can of vegetables and put on top of meat. Put another layer of tater tots on top. In a separate bowl combine the two cans of cream soup. Pour over the tater tot casserole.

Bake at 350ºF for approx. 1 hour.

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Is the meat required to really pull together the dish? I'd love to make a vegetarian version of this.

Demiurge wrote:
Growat wrote:

Tater-Tot Casserole

1 package frozen Tater Tots
1 lb. ground beef/ground turkey
1 med. onion
1 can Veg-All (or other vegetable, i.e. peas and carrots)
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
1 can Campbell's cream of something else soup (i.e. onion, asparagus, etc.)

Brown ground beef/ground turkey and chopped onion. Salt and pepper to taste.

In casserole dish (9x13), layer the bottom with a single layer of tater tots. Drain ground beef/turkey and put on top of tater tots. Drain can of vegetables and put on top of meat. Put another layer of tater tots on top. In a separate bowl combine the two cans of cream soup. Pour over the tater tot casserole.

Bake at 350ºF for approx. 1 hour.

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Is the meat required to really pull together the dish? I'd love to make a vegetarian version of this.

I think it would work very well with soy crumbles - without *something* in there, it's missing a major textural component, though.

Tanglebones wrote:
Demiurge wrote:
Growat wrote:

Tater-Tot Casserole

1 package frozen Tater Tots
1 lb. ground beef/ground turkey
1 med. onion
1 can Veg-All (or other vegetable, i.e. peas and carrots)
1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
1 can Campbell's cream of something else soup (i.e. onion, asparagus, etc.)

Brown ground beef/ground turkey and chopped onion. Salt and pepper to taste.

In casserole dish (9x13), layer the bottom with a single layer of tater tots. Drain ground beef/turkey and put on top of tater tots. Drain can of vegetables and put on top of meat. Put another layer of tater tots on top. In a separate bowl combine the two cans of cream soup. Pour over the tater tot casserole.

Bake at 350ºF for approx. 1 hour.

One variation I've yet to try would involve the final layer of tots going ABOVE the soup, then shredded cheese on top.

Is the meat required to really pull together the dish? I'd love to make a vegetarian version of this.

I think it would work very well with soy crumbles - without *something* in there, it's missing a major textural component, though.

Rad, I'm trying that.

This has been "A Sad Vegetarian Tries To Enjoy Food" with Cory Banks. Thanks for watching.

The talk on the meat of Chinatown sounds great and reminds me of my games of Spartacus where the to and fro in the wheeling and dealing is where the real fun is. I want me a copy.

Mysterium also sounds great, but I'm curious, I have a heap of cards from Dixit, would it be possible to use these to create the game? Or is there something inherently different in the Mysterium cards that makes this an impossibility.

Postscript: that recipe terrifies me.

troubleshot wrote:

The talk on the meat of Chinatown sounds great and reminds me of my games of Spartacus where the to and fro in the wheeling and dealing is where the real fun is. I want me a copy.

Mysterium also sounds great, but I'm curious, I have a heap of cards from Dixit, would it be possible to use these to create the game? Or is there something inherently different in the Mysterium cards that makes this an impossibility.

Postscript: that recipe terrifies me.

It wouldn't exactly work - aside from the mystical dream cards, there are specific cards that reference the weapon, location and murderer - that said, you could probably come up with enough cards that look the part to fake it You'll just need two copies of each, so the ghost knows which ones are the 'right' answer.

That SU&SD review of Chinatown was really good, however our group bounced off that one a few years ago and haven't fired it back up since. Neat systems, just didn't click with us. I do like the observation that it's Bohnanza with a board, that's a perfect description for it.

I really liked the discussion about expansions. Absolutely agree that there's a lot of games out there where a game just buckled once you started adding expansions. Carcassonne is another really good example of this.

Lords of Waterdeep's expansion is a curious case. The Skullport half is really interesting like Julian says, but the Undermountain half is a decent example of the parts of expansions that people dislike as it's just powercreep and adding more stuff to the box. Much like how Race for the Galaxy's expansions started out with introducing more/fleshing out the strategies (now there's a great example of a game feeling like a "system") but by the third expansion it was well into "it's like the cards you already have, just better" powercreep mode.

One of my favorite expansion business models right now is the way Ascension does it. Every year there's a new base set with a smaller set (which can be played standalone) released later in the year. The core game mechanics have stayed relatively the same but each year there's some new twists to the experience which keeps it fresh without needing to worry about the game buckling from the bloat. However, since everything is interoperable you have the option of tossing everything into a huge mega-game but you probably only want to do that on the iOS/Android/PC version where the computer will take care of all the shuffling and weird interactions for you.

It's a bummer to hear about Eldritch Horror's new expansion tacking on another 2 hours. The first expansion was pretty good (even if it's a traditional 1st expansion that just fleshes things out more), but that's certainly dampened my enthusiasm for the 2nd.

Also, I think Pandemic: Contagion started out as its own thing and was put into the Pandemic family when Z-Man picked up the publishing rights, so it's more spin-off than expansion

IlleBellus wrote:

Just listening to the part of the podcast about "Mysterium" (yes, that's a terrible name - does the Italian name traslate to "The Sixth Sense"). Anyway, just like he said he would, Shawn forgot to add a link in the show notes to the game.

Here's the boardgamegeek link:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113997/mysterium

And here is the link to the physical game's site:

http://igames.ua/en/mysterium.html

Thanks! All fixed.