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Boardgames To Go 239A - Mark Madness 2025 Kickoff (with Eryn Roston)

Release Date: 03/04/2025

Boardgames To Go

Opener: I encourage listeners to join me at the OG guild's online game convention, Within the last month I turned 60. Does that make me old? Officially? Whether it does or not, I'm still playing games. Which is what I discuss in this episode--what it's like to turn 60 in this hobby, as well as reflecting on what it was like when I turned 50, 40, 30, 20, 10...and even 0! Those were all personal milestones in some way--what did it mean for me as a gamer? In getting ready for this episode, I realized I kept thinking about time in three major ways: • When I turned another...

Boardgames To Go 252E - Mark Madness 2026 (Conclusion) with Adam Brocker

Boardgames To Go

My annual Mark Madness contest is over, and co-host Adam Brocker joins me to wrap it up. Adam won the prediction contest last year, and this was his prize...a side job to work with me! Now we have a new winner, Mark363, who I am working to locate. If he's willing, in 2027 he will join me to run the next version of this contest. In 2026 Adam had suggested we take a closer look at games that were designed by pairs or teams of designers, in contrast with their solo work. With that in mind, we set up four divisions of sixteen game titles apiece. One division was centered around Wolfgang Kramer's...

Boardgames To Go 253 - Retro Games at Dice Tower West (with DaveO)

Boardgames To Go

For the third year in a row I made it to Dice Tower West. Not only that, I enjoyed that convention with DaveO and other buddies. Not only that, but once again DaveO was my partner-in-crime for insisting we dedicate one day of our convention to focus on older boardgames. By "old" we mean games that are at least 25 years old. When we started this tradition that mean games published in in the last century, last millenium--1999 or earlier. Now, however, we can include games published all the way up to the year...2001 or earlier! That still leaves plenty of old favorites and dim memories we...

Boardgames To Go 252D - Mark Madness 2026 (Elite Eight with Adam Brocker)

Boardgames To Go

The Sweet 16 is already done and we're on to the Elite Eight. That means just two remaining titles in each of our four divisions, so almost like a mini, division-level championship in each one. From Germany it's either Azul or 6 Nimmt, then from America it's Diamant or Ticket to Ride. From France we'll either have 7 Wonders Duel or Sea Salt & Paper, and from "Italy" it's either Grand Austria Hotel or Barrage.

Boardgames To Go 252C - Mark Madness 2026 (2nd Round of 32)

Boardgames To Go

BGTG 252C - Mark Madness 2026 (2nd Round [of 32]) 1st round votes are in, now each successive round moves quickly—just three days. 2nd round voting due March 18 at noon BGG-time in Texas (UTC-5). How are you voting? For the games you enjoy the most or the ones you predicted to win (based on what you imagined OTHERS would vote for)? I’ve heard the latter is like how a political primary works. Close calls & Blow-outs • Vikings squeaked by Wandering Towers via a single vote • Same for Nucleum over Anachrony • Meanwhile, Top & Down only GOT one vote...

Boardgames To Go 252B - Mark Madness 2026 (1st Round of 64)

Boardgames To Go

The first round is underway! Go vote at https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/375187/mark-madness-2026-designer-teams

Boardgames To Go 252A - Mark Madness 2026 (Introduction) with Adam Brocker

Boardgames To Go

Please join us on the where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Play along and predict the winners at Predictions must be submitted by March 13 to be in the contest The calendar says March so that means it's time for "Mark Madness" again, my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Adam Brocker, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Adam...

Boardgames To Go 251 - German Vacation

Boardgames To Go

Opener: Closer: Mark Madness 2026 (with Adam Brocker) preview - Register for free and make your predictions at ! I've recently come back from a vacation in Germany. Once upon a time in this hobby, that really meant something significant. Germany was the worldwide headquarters and creative generator for boardgaming. Gamers in other countries hung on scraps of information, imported products, and had to learn a little of the German language to really be an active part of strategy boardgaming. In a way, that extra effort was also part of the fun, a level of commitment...

Boardgames To Go 250 - This and That Again

Boardgames To Go

Openers: , Although it’s true that episode #250 is a milestone, this podcast passed that some time ago. Between all of the extra episodes for BGGcons and Mark Madnesses, plus the occasional double-episodes in the old days, I don’t know how many podcasts have actually been released. (My podcast host Libsyn says it’s almost 400.) So this isn’t an anniversary episode, just another “regular” one where I share some thoughts about games & the hobby overall. Although I missed EsCon in January (and Gulf Games last summer) due to illness, I still managed to play a bunch of games...

Boardgames To Go 249 - Annual Retrospective & Feedback

Boardgames To Go

Here we are at another season already. The podcast has now reached it's 22nd season, which is a small miracle. We just keep chugging along. If anything, I think it now has a solid core of listeners and participants that feel like they're going to stick with me. :-) With BGStats, it's now even easier for me to see my final tallies for the games I played last year. Plus, I can separate out the digital ones from the in-person plays. Though as you'll hear in the podcast, a bunch of those digital plays are as real as anything, thanks to live play and voice/video connections. I expect that...

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Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2025
Predictions must be submitted by March 12 to be in the contest

Mark Johnson

@MarkEJohnson

eryn roston

@baditude

Once again, the month of March give me a chance to bring back "Mark Madness," my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Eryn Roston, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Furthermore, Eryn has helped define the special nature of the contest this year. It's still about boardgames, of course, but it's about boardgame art. Specifically, we're voting on the best boardgame cover art.

Eryn picked four groupings, each with 16 titles apiece. Those groupings are called Divisions, and this year there are ones for Fantasy, Historical/Real-World, Nature-themed, and Science Fiction boardgame covers. You will see some you know, and some others you don't. Just by looking at the images alone you can decide which ones to vote for, but you'll have more fun if you also listen to Eryn describe why he picked these particular game covers for Mark Madness. You see, Eryn works professionally in the world of art, went to school for it, and knows more than your average bear about artwork. If you're like me, you'll learn something along the way and appreciate game art (& artists) even more.

Eryn Roston art from his Instagram page (chickenscratch.er)

Follow Eryn's own art creator account on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chickenscratch.er/

Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 12 to submit your brackets, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner?

We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I can link them here, too.

-Mark

Fantasy Division geeklist

The Witcher: Old World, Go On Board / CD Projekt RED, 2022 — front cover (image provided by the publisher)

Abyss, Bombyx, 2014 (image provided by the publisher)

Conan, Monolith, 2016 — front cover (image provided by the publisher)

Red November (second edition), Fantasy Flight Games, 2011

Historical/Real-World Division geeklist

Tammany Hall, Pandasaurus Games, 2020 — front cover (image provided by the publisher)

Great Western Trail, eggertspiele, 2021 — front cover, second edition (image provided by the publisher)

Front Cover (eggertspiele english edition), clearer and better quality

On the Underground: London/Berlin, LudiCreations, 2019 — London side (image provided by the publisher)

Sheriff of Nottingham, Arcane Wonders, 2014 (image provided by the publisher)

Cover for Detective: City of Angels. Art by Vincent Dutrait.

A Fake Artist Goes to New York, Oink Games, 2017 — front cover (image provided by the publisher)

Official Cover : Art by Andrew Bosley & Vincent Dutrait

Nature Division geeklist

Harmonies, Libellud, 2024 — front cover (image provided by the publisher)

The final box front for the Evolution: CLIMATE stand-alone game (2-5-2016).

Sci Fi Division geeklist

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