Decision Space

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast!  Episode 137 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Balance, Part One There are no rules on the Interdecisional Spaceship. We break from tradition and declare that "What We Talk About" episodes can be two parters. Today, we deliver the first part of our topical episode on balance in board games. We attempt to define balances versus fairness; we discuss assymetric balance and strategic balance; and we ask for whom thy balance tolls for. It's a robust and, at times, unhinged conversation that we hope you join us for!    Pre-Planners Santa Monica, Torres, Food Chain Magnate, and social deduction games et. al are coming up in the relatively near future!   Timestamps (Spoilers)   Intro - 0:00 Defining Balance and Fairness - 4:23 Asymetric Balance and Player Order - 14:30 Who Is This Game Balanced For? - 21:09 Strategic Balance - 22:04 Azul - 22:33 Guards of Atlantis II - 27:32 Keyflower - 31:45 The Unstoppable Board Position (Come Back Mechanism) - 32:40 Bruges - 35:12 Variable Set Up and Variance - 39:11 Catan - 39:41 Innovation and Imhotep - 42:56 How Often Should the Better Player Win - 45:32 Next Week on Decision Space! - 49:12 Patreon Plug (Join the Crew!) - 49:57     Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss their top 10 board games they are enjoying in 2023 so far. They also mention their excitement for upcoming games, share honorable mentions, and highlight specific games like Barrage and Renature. They discuss the gameplay and strategic depth of various games such as Chicago Express, Savannah Park, Challengers, Trajan, and Raw.

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast!  Episode 135 - Playtesting and Prototyping Welcome to Decision Space, the only podcast that takes place right here before the turns of your favorite games (someday, we hope). Anyways, this podcast is very different. Today, Brendan and Jake put on their game designer hats and share some of their experiences and lessons learned with playtesting and prototyping board game designs. We hope you enjoy this educational flight aboard our sister ship, the InterDesignonal Spaceship.    Pre-Planners Santa Monica, Torres, Food Chain Magnate, and social deduction games et. al are coming up in the relatively near future!   Timestamps    Intro - 0:00 Prototyping Discussion - 2:10 Playtesting Discussion - 26:20   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast!  Episode 134 - Ark Nova Ark Nova anyone? Maybe you've heard of it? This week, the Interdecisional Spaceships embarks on a journey to explore the decisions in the highest rated game that we've ever dared to cover on this humble podcast. That's right, folks, today we are covering the 4th greatest game of all time (by BGG rating). We will center our discussion on the novel and intriguing action selection mechanism... hey wait, is this thing a rondel?!   Pre-Planners Hey pre-planners, in the next two weeks we will be doing a design focused episode on playtesting and prototyping and discussing the top 10 games we have been enjoying most in 2023. As for games, we are playing a lot of Santa Monica and Torres on Yucata right now, and down the line, we will be covering Food Chain Magnate and also social deduction games.    Timestamps    Intro - 0:00 Ratings and Reviews - 2:37 Game Background - 5:46 Rules Overview - 12:56 Deep Dive - 16:17 Preplanners - 1:03:27   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast!  Episode 133 - LTF Con Recap Last weekend the infamous Laughing Table Friends -- Charlie, Jake, Jared, Luke, and Tyler -- got together for the first ever LTF Con. The 5 person con took place over an unforgettable day and a half as the crew played 13 unique board games. It was a mix of new games and old favorites. Today, Jake is here to recap 9 of those plays (only the most interesting one) for your in flight entertainment, complimentary while on board the Interdecisional Spaceship. LTF. If you don't know, now you know.   Pre-Planners Hey pre-planners, get those plays in of Ark Nova and Food Chain Magnate while the playing is good. Other games we are considering for a deep dive right now are Torres and Santa Monica.   Timestamps    Intro/Housekeeping - 0:00 The Hunger - 2:21  D.E.I. (Divide et Impera) - 12:17 Beowulf: The Legend - 22:21 Clockwork Wars - 37:08 Viking See-Saw - 40:38 Ninja Master - 45:11 Cockroach Poker - 48:37 Robo Rally - 52:54 Antike II - 57:47   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast!  Episode 132 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Games That Play Fast Good luck keeping up with the conversation in this week's throwback WWTA episode, because things move fast. If you don't believe me, then check the timestamps. We throw out games quicker than you can say, "I miss old school board games where you had to wait 20 minutes between turns!" In this week's episode we discuss, broadly, games that play fast, what that means, and what we perceive as a growing appetite in the board game hobby for this titular phrase. Ready or not the Interdecisional Spaceship is taking off right now! (Wow! That was fast.)   Pre-Planners Hey pre-planners, get those plays in of Ark Nova and Food Chain Magnate while the playing is good. Other games we are considering for a deep dive right now are Torres and Santa Monica.   Timestamps  Intro - 0:00 Housekeeping - 2:48 Main Topic - 6:10 Battlestar Galactica - 8:54 A Feast for Odin - 11:37 Ark Nova - 11:55 Wingspan - 14:47 Gloomhaven - 15:12 Castles of Burgundy - 19:34 Torres - 20:16 El Grande - 20:20 Tikal, Cuzco - 21:34 Cascadia - 26:06 Five Tribes - 29:09 Keyflower - 31:01 Carcasonne - 32:48 Broom Service - 33:28 Sheriff of Nottingham - 34:29 Findorff - 35:17 Ticket to Ride - 36:17 1849 (We're the train game podcast) - 39:05 Ra - 39:54 Architects of the West Kingdom - 42:07 Tricktaking Games - 43:54 Challengers - 47:54 Spades - 49:13 Caesar! Sieze Rome in 20 Minutes - 49:35 Azul - 49:55 Kingdomino - 50:49 Millenium Blades - 53:00 Sidereal Confluence - 53:20 Guards of Atlantis II - 55:26 Barrage - 56:43 Hey, That's My Fish! - 58:47 Living Forest - 1:00:01 Isle of Cats - 1:00:02 In the Year of the Dragon - 1:00:48 Bonfire - 1:01:21 Earth - 1:03:47 Mask "Trilogy" Games - 1:05:33 Acquire - 1:09:09  Final note (Thanks Aurore) - 1:09:54 Oops - 1:10:39 Preplanner Stuff - 1:11:40   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast! Episode 131 - Pushing Your Luck Feat. Spots and Can't Stop Today we consider the push your luck mechanic in board games, highlighting Can't Stop and Spots for short reviews. In the second half we touch on a bunch of games that stick out to us as examples of what push your luck is, what it's not, when it works, and when... it does not. Please silence your cell phones and quiet small children, because the feature podcast is about to begin.   Pre-Planners Hey pre-planners, get those plays in of Ark Nova and Food Chain Magnate while the playing is good.   Timestamps  Can't Stop - 2:20 Spots - 16:45 Push Your Luck Discussion - 29:07 Bruges/Hamburg - 34:10 Incan Gold - 37:26 Ra - 38:37 The Castles of Burgundy - 41:45 Enchanted Plumes - 42:09 Rapido!/Excape/Exxtra - 46:49 Deep Sea Adventure - 50:41 Quacks of Quedlingburg - 52:00 King of Tokyo 52:20 Claim It! - 53:33 A Feast for Odin - 54:17 Living Forest - 55:38 Samurai Spirit - 57:26 Catan - 1:00:43   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast! Episode 130 - Recent Plays at Gamers Ranch This week's impromptu episode features Jake regaling Brendan with stories of his recent plays at Gamers Ranch -- Heat, The Search for Lost Species, and Earth to name a few. Brendan gets in there too with some plays of his own! It's a rough cut but a really fun episode. I hope you enjoy it Interdecisional Spaceship passengers.  If you are interested in Gamers Ranch (not a sponsor), you can find more info here - https://gamersranch.com/    Pre-Planners Ark Nova, Can't Stop!, Spots, and more will be covered on the show soon! 👀    Timestamps  Intro - 0:00 QE - 8:28 The Search for Lost Species - 14:23 Challengers - 20:56 Equinox - 26:06 Castles of Burgundy - 29:57 Paris Connection - 38:23 Earth - 45:31 Torres - 48:14 Arcana Rising - 53:20 Jekyll vs. Hyde - 56:35 Nokosu Dice - 1:02:08 Heat - 1:09:01   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Instagram @DecisionSpacePod and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast! Episode 129 - Challengers! Donald X. Vaccarino's Dominion famously popularized the deck building mechanic, forever changing the landscape of board gaming. Is it possible that a silly little card game called Challengers! will do the same for auto battlers? Buckle up Interdecisional Spaceship passengers because on this special episode of Decision Space we cover this Kennerspiel nominated game and ask ourselves, do we have a classic on our hands?   Pre-Planners Ark Nova, Can't Stop!, Spots, and more will be covered on the show soon! 👀    Timestamps  Ratings and Reviews - 0:00 Game Background - 6:20 Rules Overview - 11:37 Challengers! Deep Dive - 13:49 Strategy Section - 49:48   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Twitter @DecisionSpa and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!

Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you found this podcast! Episode 128 - If We Can Only Keep 10 Games Thought Experiment ERROR! ERROR! Something has gone horribly wrong in the Interdecisional Spaceship. The only way to correct course is to dump cargo out of the storage bay. We ran the numbers, and there is only space left on this ship for 10 games each! In this episode, we decide, from our entire collection which 10 games we'll keep.   Pre-Planners Challengers!, Ark Nova, Can't Stop!, Spots, and more will be covered on the show soon! 👀   Timestamps  Intro - 0:00 6:55 - Main Topic Keyforge - 7:16 Babylonia - 9:42 Ra - 10:35 Cascadia - 12:13 Arkham Horror: Living Card Game - 13:49 Just One - 17:18 So Clover - 20:38 Broom Service - 22:40 Isle of Cats - 24:59 Keyflower - 27:40 Bonfire - 29:46 The Fox in the Forest - 31:53 The Castles of Burgundy - 33:03 El Grande - 34:45 A Feast for Odin - 36:25 Azul - 37:56 Renature - 40:09 Ra - 43:10 Challengers - 44:56 The Resistance - 47:24 Surprise Segment! - 51:39   Music and Sound Credits Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.  Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA Rules Overview Music:  Way Home by Tokyo Music Walker https://soundcloud.com/user-356546060​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/tokyo-music-walker-way...​ Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/pJThZlOuDtI Contact We can be reached individually on Twitter at @jakefryd and @burnsidebh. You can also follow Decision Space on Twitter @DecisionSpa and talk to us there! If you prefer email, then hit us up at decisionspa@gmail.com. This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com. Byeee!