At The Table With The Dice Tower - Looking Back at 2025
The Dice Tower
It's time for our look back at the games of 2025. Highs and lows, heavy and light, thorny and rosy and hoopy. 01:20 - Top Tens on Video 01:51 - Year as a Whole 07:49 - Convention/On The Go Game - Hot Streak, Light Speed Arena, Ghost Lift, Ito, 1AM Jailbreak 12:07 - All-Day-to-Play - Regicide Legacy, My Father's Work, Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era 14:48 - Best Theme - Luthier, Flow, Storyfold: Wildwoods 20:06 - Guilty Pleasure - Deep Regrets, Moon Colony Bloodbath 24:38 - Favorite Classic - Race for the Galaxy, At The Gates of Loyang, Sentient, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, You're...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Re-Role
The Dice Tower
This time, we continue our discussion of RPGs by suggesting Role Playing Games that share popular boardgaming mechanisms, as well as giving Tom tips for getting a game started. Plus, we have a new Tale of Boardgaming Horror, and we close the show with some Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:50 - A Story About Mail 02:22 - Eric at PAX Unplugged (inc. Hot Streak) 06:50 - Gift Guides, Dice Tower West and East 08:02 - RPGs for Boardgame Fans (detailed notes below) 37:55 - Tale of Boardgaming Horror 43:03 - Formaggio 48:35 - Gnomic Parliament 52:13 - Carnuta 54:49 - Magic Number 11 56:54 -...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Role Call
The Dice Tower
This time, we go fishing for Role Players, linking some popular aspects of RPGs to our favorite boardgames. Plus, our latest collection of Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:47 - Getting Cold 01:45 - Eric at Pax Unplugged 03:47 - Games at Tom's Daughter's Wedding? 05:10 - BGG Con, Dice Tower East, West, Cruise 06:37 - Fishing for Role Players 14:58 - Stat-Heavy Games: Pathfinder ACG, Mage Knight 17:48 - Character Building: Origin Story, Elder Scrolls, Too Many Bonews, Artisans of Splendent Vale 20:12 - Story-Based Character Progression: Call to Adventure, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Near and...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Essen Adventures 2025
The Dice Tower
Tom, Julie, and Eric are back from Germany and ready to talk about games, food, crowds, and everything else they saw at Spiel 2025. 00:44 - Tired 01:50 - Official Numbers/Crowd Flow 07:09 - Travel Adventures and Weather 08:46 - What Was Different for Eric 11:31 - Food 13:35 - Eric's Birthday 15:44 - Julie's Author Signing 21:16 - Tom's Live Show 25:22 - Big Games 31:14 - How To Stand Out 35:51 - Limited Stock and How To Deal With It 40:17 - What Did We Go Home With? 44:12 - A Carnivore Did It 47:25 - Flow 50:50 - Ghost Lift 54:48 - Formidable Farm 58:22 - Leaders 59:52 - The Old King's Crown...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower: The Games of Essen 2025
The Dice Tower
Tom, Julie, and Eric run through their game plan for Essen Spiel 2025, including where they'll be, and what games are on the internet's radar, as well as trying to narrow down what three games are of the most interest to them personally. 00:59 - Bookkeeping: Dice Tower East, West, Cruise 01:57 - The Weather in Germany 03:12 - Eric's First Time Back Since 2019, What's Changed? 07:18 - Where Will We Be? Dice Tower Booth: 3 R315 Van Ryder Booth: 2 E280 Live Show, Sunday 1:30pm: Hall 4 09:30 - Dice Tower Essentials Interlude: Aquatica Duel, On Stage, Raas 11:44 - Live Plays 13:47 - Warning from...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Essen Prep
The Dice Tower
Tom is stuck in traffic, so Julie and Eric take control to discuss what it takes to setup a booth at Essen. How do you get all that stuff overseas, and how do you minimize what has to come back? And of course, there are Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:45 - Where is Tom? and Julie's Work Trip 03:56 - Dice Tower Cruise and Dice Tower West 05:07 - Moving a Booth to Essen 35:50 - Tiletum: Prospect for Silver 41:20 - I Made You a Mixtape 45:12 - High Tide 50:00 - The Yellow House Questions? Tales of Horror? tom@dicetower.com
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Where There's a Will There's a Way
The Dice Tower
Tom begins by recapping his adventures at the Dice Tower Retreat, and looks forward to the World Series of Boardgaming, before turning to the topic of figuring out what to do with your game collection after you're gone, and why it might be a good idea to make some choices sooner rather than later. Later, we share a new Tale of Boardgaming Horror, peek into the mailbag, and gather a collection of Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:51 - Tom at the Dice Tower Retreat 02:25 - The World Series of Boardgaming 04:58 - Dice Tower Cruise, Dice Tower West, Spiel 06:03 - Planning for the Future of your...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Where You Least Expect
The Dice Tower
Tom sits at the small table. Eric's parents make friends on a cruise. Julie travels the country spreading boardgames wherever she goes. We also talk about what surprises await in those little pockets of games in places where you don't expect to find them. We delve into the mailbag for some pertinent questions, and we gather a new crop of Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:50 - School Has Started, Dice Tower West, Cruise 02:40 - Eric's Parents on Alaskan Cruise 03:19 - Spiel Plans (Booth 3R315) 05:02 - Game Shelves in Unusual Spots 20:43 - Question: Playing With Bob 29:30 - Question: Storing...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Paint Me A Picture
The Dice Tower
Eric starts the show by sharing tales of his European adventures, which leads Tom to share some of our plans for Spiel in October. Then, we discuss the process for adding art to your game. How do you find an artist? How long does it take to draw a picture of a horse? What if the horse is holding a corn dog? Later, we share a tale of horror and a question, and move on to our Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:48 - Middle of the Year? - School Starting 02:23 - Eric's European Adventure 09:25 - Spiel Plans 12:14 - Art in Games 34:56 - Tale of Boardgaming Horror/Question 46:32 - Sancturary 48:42 -...
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At The Table with The Dice Tower - Escaping Gen Con 2025
The Dice Tower
We are back from Gen Con, and ready to talk about our adventures! We discuss the crowds, the events, and the games we enjoyed, and maybe a little about the food we ate as well. We also share a new Tale of Boardgaming Horror, and share our latest crop of Roses, Thorns, and Hula Hoops. 00:46 - Announcements: Dice Tower West and Dice Tower Cruise 01:40 - Gen Con: Crowds and Fans 10:25 - Gen Con: Sales and Sellouts 12:50 - Gen Con: What Did We Buy? 16:20 - Gen Con: Tom's Trends 20:42 - Gen Con: Dice Tower Awards 23:27 - Gen Con: Food 26:36 - Tale of Boardgaming Horror 37:25 - Giraffe Raffe 40:13 -...
info_outlineJulie and Eric spend some time recapping PAX Unplugged before all of us take a look at the year that was 2024. What was the easiest game to teach? The game that you'd best set aside a day to play? The Hoopiest Hula Hoop? All will be revealed, dear listener!
01:00 - PAX Unplugged Recap
14:03 - The Quiet House
16:49 - Star Trek TNG VCR Game
20:41 - 2024 as a Whole
29:25 - Best to Play at a Convention: Ito, Rock Hard 1977, Duck & Cover
31:40 - Best Theme: Rock Hard 1977, Mistwind, Kelp: Shark vs. Octopus
34:43 - Most Likely to be Gifted: Muppets Clue, Wicked
38:00 - Best Traveling Game: Seaside, Smug Owl, Ito
40:25 - Best Set Aside a Day For It Game: Tidal Blades 2, El Burro, Wandering Galaxy
45:13 - Easiest Teach/Learn: Cat Horror Costumes, Pixies, Ito
46:50 - Bonus Heavy Euro: Civolution
47:16 - Wanted to Play but Didn't: Power Grid Outpost, Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Duel, Paella Park, Pagan: Fate of Roanoke, Daitoshi
50:18 - Hoopiest Hula Hoop: Ziggurat, Slay the Spire, Panda Panda
53:51 - Sharpest Thorn: I Am Done, Clash of Galiformes, Unlock Kids
57:31 - Rosiest Rose: Star Wars Unlimited, Wyrmspan, The 7th Continent
59:22 - Anticipated for 2025 - Raas, Azul Duel, All My Books, The Elder Scrolls, Galactic Cruise
Next Episode: January 14th, 2025
Tales of Horror? Questions? tom@dicetower.com